Slender suffrutescent plants up to 50 cm. high; stems branched, subquadrangular, puberulous with upwardly curved whitish hairs about 0.1 mm. long, the lower suffruticose portions glabrate, the internodes 1 to 4 cm. long; leaf blades lanceolate, up to 11 cm. long and 1.5 cm. wide, slenderly acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed to a subsessile base, moderately firm, undulate, the upper surface sparingly strigose, the hairs up to 0.5 mm. long, the lower surface minutely strigose, the hairs about 0.2 mm. long and confined chiefly to costa and veins (6 or 7 pairs), these slender and scarcely prominent, the cystoliths obscure and minute; petioles up to 3 mm. long, puberu- lous with curved hairs; flowers borne in slender axillary dichotomously and trichotomously branched panicles up to 6 cm. long, the peduncles usually 1 to 3 cm. long, 0.5 to 0.75 mm. in diameter, flattened, these and the branches of the inflorescence puberulous with curved hairs; pedicels slender, 2 mm. long, 0.28 mm. thick, puberulous, the hairs curved; bracts subtending the lowermost pair of branches of the panicle linear, 4 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, strigose, the subsequent bracts subulate, 1.5 to 2.5 mm. long, strigose; bractlets minute, subu- late; calyx 6 mm. long, hirtellous, the hairs mostly spreading, rigid, up to 0.15 mm. long, the segments subulate, 5 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide at base; corolla purple, 15 mm. long, retrorsely hirsute, the hairs up to 0.2 mm. long, the lower half of the tube 1 mm. broad, the mouth 4 mm. broad, the lips veiny, the upper lip erect, ovate, 4 mm. long and 2.5 mm. wide, acute, the lower lip more or less spreading, 5 mm. long, 3-lobed, the lobes obovate, rounded, the middle lobe 2.5 mm. wide, the lateral ones 1.5 mm. wide; stamens slightly exserted beyond the mouth of the corolla tube, about 4.5 mm. long, the fila- ments flattened, glabrous, the anthers lobes slightly superposed and obliquely attached to the connective, the lobes 0.75 mm. long, glabrous, the lower lobe caudate, the tail about 0.15 mm. long; pistil slightly longer than the stamens, curved at tip, the stigma lobes minute and

rounded; capsules clavate, 11 mm. long, 2 mm. broad, 1.5 mm. thick, puberulous, the hairs straight, spreading or retrorse, about 0.1 mm. long, the solid stipitate portion of the capsule 5 mm. long; retinacula 1 mm. long, the tip flattened, rounded; seed dark brown, strongly flattened, ovate, 1.75 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, strongly papillose.

Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1740624, collected along a stream in the Quebrada Pontoná, about 18 km. west of La Dorada, Department of Caldas, Colombia, 400 meters altitude, December 30, 1936, by Oscar Haught (No. 2135).

Justicia namatophila is a well marked species easily recognized by its narrowly lanceolate leaf blades and numerous axillary panicles with slender branches and the subulate calyx segments. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek words vaua, running water, and piλos, loving.