Leaves growing by fours, linear, pointed with a recurved base, and an ascending point, ciliate, flat on their upper, and rolled back on their under, surface, shining, the leaf-stems very short, and pressed to the branches.
Flowers terminal, numerous, upright, level, and in bunches; the footstalks purple, having two small opposite floral leaves at their base.
Empalement. Cup four-leaved, erect, keel-shaped, and ciliate.
Blossom of an oblong-ovate form, narrowed toward the top, with a slightly reflexed border, of a whitish purple, smooth, and shining.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads, nearly of a length with the blossomed, fixed into the receptacle. Tips within the blossom small, cleft, and two-horned at their base.
Pointal. Seed-vessel oblong and furrowed. Shaft thread-shaped, of an equal length with the threads. Summit nearly four-cornered.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
In bloom from April till September.
REFERENCE.
| 1. The Empalement with the Blossom. |
| 2. The Empalement and Floral-leaf magnified. |
| 3. The Chives and Pointal. |
| 4. The Chives detached from the Pointal, one tip magnified. |
| 5. The Shaft, and its Summit magnified. |