Razisea spicata Oerst. Vid. Medd., Nat. For. Kjöbenhavn 1845: 142. 1845, Type collected in dense mountain woods of Aguacate, Costa Rica, by Oersted. Shrubs up to 3 meters high; stems subquadrangular, nitid, glabrous or puberulous, the hairs minute, white, curved, disposed more or less in two rows; leaf blades oblong-ovate to elliptic, up to 21 cm. long and 9 cm. wide, short-acuminate, narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, rather thin, entire or undulate, the upper surface glabrous, subnitid, the cystoliths minute, obscure, the lower surface minutely white-papillose, drying a lighter green than the upper surface, glabrous or the lateral veins (8 to 12 pairs) and margins of the costa puberulous, the cystoliths sometimes numerous and con- spicuous under a lens, up to 150μ long, the venation rather prominent, more so than above; petioles up to 5 cm. long, glabrous; flowers borne in narrow terminal spikelike racemes up to 20 cm. long and 6 cm. broad, the flowers erect or ascending, usually numerous, the peduncle up to 3 cm. long, glabrous or bifariously puberulous; rachis puberulous; pedicels up to 1.5 mm. long, puberulous, the hairs curved; lower- most bracts narrowly triangular, up to 3 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide at base, acuminate, glabrous, the other bracts similar but successively smaller toward tip of inflorescence; bractlets triangular, up to 2 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide at base, acute, glabrous; calyx 5 mm. long, deeply segmented, the segments narrowly triangular, 1 mm. wide at base, gradually narrowed to a slender tip, glabrous, bearing numerous minute cystoliths, these conspicuous under a lens; corolla brilliant red, glabrous or sparingly and minutely hirtellous, up to 4 cm. long, the tube 2.5 mm. broad near base, gradually enlarged to 7 mm. at mouth, the tip, before expansion, obliquely truncate, the upper lip ovate, 6 mm. long and about 4 mm. wide, abruptly bent before expansion of flower to cover the broad short more or less saccate lower lip, this 3-lobed at tip, the lobes suborbicular, about 1 mm. long and broad; stamens exserted about 10 mm. beyond mouth of corolla tube, the filaments winged, glabrous; anthers glabrous, rounded at each end; style about as long as the stamens; ovary glabrous; capsules not seen. Although limited in range in Colombia, this species seems to be rather widespread in Costa Rica and Panamá. In the last-named regions the species varies greatly in size of leaf blades, amount of pubescence, length of pedicels, and number of flowers. BOYACA: Thick forested region of Mount Chapón, Lawrance 198 (K, NY. S, US). CUNDINAMARCA: Forests of Pancho on the La Palma Highway, 1,000 meters altitude, Haught 6013 (US). Sasaima, Herbarium of Fidel Pombo (Col).