An evergreen shrub of loose, graceful habit 6 or 7 ft high, with slender, downy branches. Leaves alternate, closely set on the branches, very like those of rosemary, 1 to 2 in. long, averaging 1⁄8 in. wide, stalkless, pointed, dark grey-green and rough above, covered beneath with closely pressed silvery hairs. Flowers deep rosy-red, densely arranged in terminal racemes, each flower 1 in. or less long, on a glabrous stalk 1⁄4 in. long. Perianth silky inside, glabrous outside, scarcely 1⁄2 in. long, with hooked divisions, two long and two short, in the apex of each of which is enclosed an anther; styles about 3⁄4 in. long, red. Bot. Mag., t. 5971.
Native of New South Wales; discovered by Allan Cunningham in 1822. Near London this shrub will only survive mild winters but has succeeded and flowered well at Grayswood Hill, Haslemere. In Cornwall it is quite at home, and makes fine bushes 6 or 7 ft high, and twice or thrice as much wide.