Japan Flora: Perennial 30-50 cm. high; stems erect, firm, rather slender, 4-angled, strigose on the angles, sparsely branched; leaves broadly lanceolate, 3-6 cm. long, 8-15 mm. wide, acute, subrounded at base, spreading, strigose-hairy, entire, 5-nerved, the petioles 1-2 mm. long; flowers few, sessile, in terminal heads, the bracts ovate, obtuse, ciliate, slightly shorter than the calyx-tube; calyx-tube urceolate, glabrous, 5_6 mm. long, the lobes 4, membranous, ovate-oblong, subobtuse, as long as the tube, with a short callose tubercle terminated by a tuft of long straight hairs between the lobes; petals broadly obovate, 12-15 mm. long, ciliate near tip; anthers about 4 mm. long, short-beaked, the connective slightly thickened at base; capsules enclosed in the calyx-tube, subglobose, 4-valved; seeds minutely tubercled. Aug.-Oct. Grassy places in lowlands;

Honshu (Kii Prov.), Shikoku, Kyushu. Ryukyus, Formosa, China, and Malaysia.