Annual, biennial or perennial herbs. Leaves variously lobed. Flowers in cincinni, ± irregular, variously coloured. Calyx enlarging and enclosing the fruit. Corolla infundibuliform, 5-lobed; lobes ± unequal, imbricate in bud. Stamens 5, attached about the middle or at the base of the corolla tube; anthers usually exserted, oblong, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary bilocular. Style filiform, stigma subcapitate. Capsule (pyxidium) erect, enclosed in the calyx, dehiscence by a lid. Seeds many, compressed.