Herbs up to 70 cm. high; stems subquadrangular, glabrous or puber- ulous in 2 lines, the hairs about 0.25 mm. long, brownish, septate, retrorsely curved; leaf blades oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, up to 25 cm. long and 6 cm. wide, slenderly acuminate (the tip itself blunt), gradually narrowed to base, firm, entire or undulate, the upper surface glabrous, the venation obscure, the lower surface glabrous except the costa and lateral veins, these prominent and rather sparingly puberulous, the cystoliths inconspicuous; petioles up to 2.5 cm. long, puberulous, some of the hairs cyathiform; spikes 1, terminal, or if two terminal and eubterminal, oblong, up to 12 cm. long and 2 cm. broad, the peduncles ca. 1 cm. long, puberulous in 2 lines, the rachis puberulous with brownish hairs about 0.16 mm. long; bracts red or bronze purple, oblong-ovate, 4-5 cm. long, 16 mm. broad near base, obtuse at apex, rounded at base, thin, sparingly ciliate (the hairs up to 0.75 mm. long), other wise glabrous except the more or less puberulous costa, the veins and the coarsely reticulate veinlets prominent; bractlets oblong-lanceolate, 17 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, acute, thin, glabrous or sparingly strigose toward base, sparingly ciliate, coarsely reticulate-veined; calyx 11 mm. long, deeply segmented, the segments 5, lanceolate, 10 mm. long, 1 mm. wide near base, slenderly acuminate, ciliate toward tip, moderately puberulous with blackish glandular hairs 50 to 125, long (appearing as dark specks under a lens), these, intermixed with acute hairs, sometimes also present on the bractlets; corolla white or the lobes sometimes reddish, up to 32 mm. long, rather densely pubescent, except the enlarged lower glabrous portion, the tube 3 mm. broad at base, narrowed to 2.5 mm. at 3 mm. above base, thence gradually enlarged to 4 mm. at mouth, the lips equal, 11 mm. long, the upper lip erect, lanceolate, about 2 mm. wide, acute, the lower lip somewhat spreading, 3-lobed at tip, the lobes 2.5 mm. long, the middle lobe 1.5 mm. wide, the lateral ones 0.75 mm. wide, all rounded at tip; stamens exserted 8 mm. beyond mouth of corolla tube, the filaments flat and glabrous; anthers 5 mm. long, the lobes vertical, superposed, the upper 1 mm. above the lower, the upper lobe 2 mm. long and 0.75 mm. broad, muticous, the lower 2.5 mm. long, muticous or briefly and bluntly spurred; ovary glabrous; capsules not seen. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 2025712, collected in dense humid forest on the bank of the Río Guapaya, Sierra de la Macarena, Intendencia of Meta, Colombia, 450 meters altitude, November 26, 1949, by W. R. Philipson, J. M. Idrobo, and A. Fern- ández, No. 1578. Isotype in the British Museum. The following also represent the species: META: Rocky side of shaded ravine along the Río Duda, at Uribe, altitude 770 meters, December 21, 1942, Fosberg 19492 (US). Vicinity of the Los Micos landing strip on the left bank of the Río Guejar, on the Sabanas de San Juan de Arama, 500 meters altitude, January 22, 1951, Jesus M. Idrobo & Richard E. Schultes 1218 (US). The thin veiny reddish bracts and narrow white or reddish corollas are characters by which Justicia macarenensis can be readily recognized.