Spiny shrubs or small trees, branches mostly terete, glabrous. Leaves small, glabrous, opposite or fascicled, ovate or oblong; stipule interpetiolar, small, deciduous. Flowers mostly axillary, solitary, shortly pedicelled, erect or pendulous, generally white, 4-merous. Calyx-tube oblong, obovate or campanulate, 4-lobed, usually trigonal or tetragonal, subulate, persistent. Corolla funnel-shaped or campanulate, membranous; tube long, throat obconical, dilated, 4-lobed, lobes valuate, ovate, acute or obtuse. Stamens 4, inserted in the corolla-tube; filaments short, filiform or elongated; anthers linear. Disc annular. Ovary 2-locular, many ovules in each locule; style filifonn, stigma elongated, papillose, shallowly 2-lobed. Fruit a berry, ovoid, globose or oblong, 2-locular, many-seeded, ± coriaceous. Seeds compressed, testa subcoriaceous, granulate, albumen dense and hard, embryo minute.