Herbs up to 1 meter high, suffrutescent at base, ascending, rooting at the lower nodes; stems subquadrangular, grooved and rounded on the angles, puberulous, the hairs 175 long, retrorsely curved; leaf blades ovate, 6 to 9 cm. long, 3 to 6 cm. wide, abruptly acuminate at tip, rounded or obtuse at base, thin, the margins crenate, the upper sur- face dull green, glabrous, the lower surface grayish green, rather densely puberulous, the hairs up to 200 long, gray, appressed, con- fined chiefly to costa and lateral veins (about 8 pairs) these fairly con- spicuous both above and beneath; petioles 5 to 10 mm. long, appressed- puberulous; flowers clustered in the axils of the upper leaves, several in each fascicle; bracts subtending the flowers narrowly lanceolate, about 8 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide, thick and subcarinate, sparingly puberulous, the hairs appressed, the bractlets similar but much small- er; calyx about 7 mm. long, the segments lance-subulate, 0.75 mm. wide, the tips blunt or rounded, sparingly puberulous and ciliate, the hairs appressed, about 100 long; corolla bluish purple (azul lila), the upper portion glabrous, the lower inconspicuously puberulous, the hairs spreading, 75μ long, the tube 2 mm, broad at base, narrowed to 1.5 mm. at 3 mm. above base, thence abruptly enlarged to 8 mm. at throat, the limb 15 mm, broad, the enlarged portion of the tube slightly oblique, the lobes suborbicular, about 6 mm. long and 7 mm. wide, shallowly emarginate, the margins crenate; stamens attached to base of the expanded portion of the corolla tube, the longer of each pair about 5 mm. long, the shorter 3 mm. long, the filaments very slender, glabrous, the anthers 2 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide; pistil 17 mm. long, the ovary and style minutely hirsute, the hairs ascending, about 50μ long, the stigma lobe oblong, thin, 1.5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide; cap- sule clavate, 10 to 12 mm. long, minutely puberulous or glabrate, the solid stipitate base about 5 mm. long; seed flat, suborbicular, brown, the margins gelatinous-puberulous when moistened; retinacula erect, straight, subulate, truncate, 1.5 mm. long. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1852483, collected along the Río Calima at La Trojita, Department of El Valle, Colombia, 5 to 50 meters altitude, February 19 to March 10, 1944, by J. Cuatre- casas (No. 16424). The following also represent the species: ANTIOQUIA: In dense damp woods between Villa Arteaga and Río Mutatá, Johnston & Barkley 18C448 (Med). BOLÍVAR: River-flat of the Río Sinú at Boca Tai, 50 to 80 meters altitude, Pennell 4182 (NY). Moist forest, Las Dantas to Puerto Canoa, on the Río Es- meralda, 400 to 800 meters, Pennell 4526 (NY). Ruellia colombiana is an indefinite species, differing from the poly- morphic R. pennellii only in its rounded leaf bases and the general lack of the long narrow leaflike bracts of the inflorescence.