Herbs up to 40 cm. high or more; stems erect or ascending, sub- quadrangular, glabrous, the lower portions 5.5 mm. in diameter or more; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, up to 18 cm. long and 6.8 cm. wide, shortly but rather slenderly acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base, firm, undulate, glabrous or inconspicuously puberulous along costa on the lower surface, the venation prominent, more so beneath than above, the lateral veins usually 6 pairs, the cystoliths rather prominent, up to 0.38 mm. long; petioles up to 1.5 cm. long, glabrous or sparingly puberulous, 1.75 mm. thick; flowers borne in terminal spikes, these often branched at or near base to form a loose panicle; peduncles up to 3 cm. long, subquadrangular, minutely and incon- spicuously rstigose; rachis hirtellous, the hairs retrorsely curved, up to 0.16 mm. long, the lowermost internode of the rachis 8 mm. long, the others successively shorter toward the tip of the inflorescence; bracts narrowly ovate, 5.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide near base, acute, 3-nerved, sparingly hirtellous, the hairs slightly curved, ascending, up to 0.2 mm. long; bractlets lanceolate, 5 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide at base, conduplicate, hirtellous with minute ascending straight or slightly curved hairs; calyx 11 mm. long, deeply segmented, the segments 5, linear-lanceolate, 0.75 mm. wide, narrowed to a slender tip, rather thin, hirtellous, the hairs spreading or ascending, up to 0.13 mm. long, some of spreading ones gland-tipped; corollas lilac, about 12 mm. long, hirtellous, the hairs up to 0.16 mm. long, slightly and retrorsely curved, some of them gland-tipped, the tube about 2 mm. broad at base, 4 mm. broad at mouth, the lips subequal, 7 mm. long, the upper lip oblong-ovate, about 3 mm. wide, subcucullate,

enfolding the stamens, the lower lip spreading, about 3.5 mm. wide, 3-lobed, the lobes ovate, rounded; stamens reaching the tip of the upper lip, the filaments glabrous or bearing a few hairs near base, the anthers 2.5 mm. long, the lobes superposed one above the other, subvertically attached to the connective, the lower lobe terminating in a blunt white spur 0.5 mm. long; pistil equalling the stamens, hirtellous; capsules clavate, 12 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, 1.5 mm. thick, 4-seeded, puberulous, the hairs up to 0.06 mm. long, spreading or retrorse; retinacula 1.5 mm. long, curved or bent, the tip flat, rounded, erose.

Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1798535, collected in wet forests along the Río Putumayo at Puerto Ospina, Comisaría of Putumayo, Colombia, 230 meters altitude, November 29, 1940, by J. Cuatrecasas (No. 10848).

The holotype specimen is forked at the tip, the two branches about 20 cm. long and each bearing at the tip of the single internode (about 12 cm. long) a pair of leaves and an inflorescence. This mode of forking may or may not be normal for the species. The lobation of the lips was not discernible in the immature corollas of the type material. The species apparently has no close relatives and is probably confined to the Putumayo region.