"Being a native of the warmest parts of America, it requires to be placed in a moderate stove in winter, where they always flower in that season, at which time they make a fine appearance, and in the summer place them abroad in a sheltered situation with other tender exotic plants, where they generally flower again, and produce ripe seeds annually." _Mill. Dict._ "These plants will continue many years with proper management, but as young plants always flower better than the old root, so it is scarce worth while to continue them after they have borne good seeds, which should be sown on a hot-bed in the spring." _Mill. Dict._ [455] [Illustration: Nº. 455] Aloe Retusa. Cushion Aloe. _Class and Order._ Hexandria Monogynia. _Generic Character._ _Cor._ erecta, ore patulo fundo nectarifero. _Filam._ receptaculo inserta. _Specific Character and Synonyms._ ALOE _retusa_ acaulis foliis quinquefariis deltoideis. _Thunb. Aloe, n. 15. Ait. Kew. 471._ ALOE _retusa_ floribus sessilibus triquetris bilabiatis labio inferiore revoluto. _Linn. Sp. Pl. 459._ ALOE _africana_ brevissimo crassissimoque folio, flore viridi. _Comm. hort. 2. p. 11. t. 6._ _Till. pis. 6. t. 5._ Though the flowers of this Aloe have little to recommend them, there is much to admire in the form and structure of its leaves; and this pleasing circumstance attends it, it is perfectly distinct from all the other species: when first introduced, it was no doubt an object of great admiration; Fairchild, the celebrated Gardener of Hoxton, who preceded Miller, had it engraved, with several other succulents, on a plate which is prefixed to Dr. Blair's _Botanic Essays_, and which he described to the Doctor, betwixt whom and Mr. Fairchild there appears to have subsisted a great degree of intimacy: the Essays were printed in 1720. This species is a native of the Cape, and flowers in June, but not regularly so, increases very fast by offsets: Mr. Aiton makes it as he does all the Aloes indiscriminately, Dry Stove Plants, but it may be kept in a good green-house, taking care to place it in the driest and most airy part, and to guard it at all times from much wet, but more especially in the winter season. [456] [Illustration: Nº. 456] Diosma Serratifolia. Serrated or Saw-Leaved Diosma. _Class and Order._ Pentandria Monogynia. _Generic Character._ _Cor._ 5-petala. _Nectaria_ 5 supra germen. _Caps. 3. s. 5._ coalitæ. _Sem._ calyptrata. _Specific Character._ DIOSMA _serratifolia_ follis lanceolatis glanduloso-serrulatis, pedunculis axillaribus oppositis subunifloris. It was in the green-house of Mr. Whitley, Nurseryman at Old Brampton, that we first saw this plant in flower, on the 25th of March 1799; previous to this period it had flowered in the Royal Garden at Kew, and specimens of it had been deposited in the Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, under the name of _Diosma serratifolia_.