; 0 its leaves are sessile, linear-lanceolate, curved in a gutter, pointed and sharp, of an ash green, entirely covered with dust, scaly and whitish; 1 lower ones spread out and reconciled in a rosette at the base of the stem; 2 others much shorter, stray and almost entirely applied against it; 3 this stem is only five to six inches high, and it is completed by ten to twelve blue, quite small, sessile flowers in the axil of a bract, lanceolate, purple, and arranged in an ear. flowers: calyx is formed of two spathulate leaflets, quite similar, for consistency, bracted; one of them is lanceolate, and the other, half as large, bifid at its apex; the corolla consists of three linear-spathulate petals, larger than the calyx; the stamens, six, have their filaments flat, membranous, inserted under the ovary, half shorter than the petals, placed two by two by each other and ending in linear anthers; the ovary is superior, ovate, has three lobes, exceeded by a simple style somewhat longer than the stamens, and ending in a trifid stigma; the ovary has three parts which appear to contain numerous and small seed; we have not seen the fruit.Translated by Butcher from: Herb Gen Amat 5; pl 304. (1821)