Tas. 5812. 
ALOE (GASTERIA) CROUCHERI. 
Mr. Croucher’s Gasteria. 
Nat. Ord. AspHODELE®.—HEXANDRIA Monoeyrnia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 5210.) 
Aor (Gasteria) Croucheri; acaulis, foliis patulis elongato-lingulatis mu- 
cronatis inequilateraliter trigonis angulis albo-maculatis cartilagineis 
denticulatis, supra concavis subtus oblique convexis levibus maculis 
ovalibus albis sepe ocellatis notatis, racemis elongatis late paniculatis 
multifloris, perianthiis elongatis teretibus curvis medio leviter contractis 
roseis superne albis viridi striatis, segmentis parvis rotundatis erosis. 
This, the handsomest Gasteria of the kind that has hitherto 
flowered at Kew, is named after the intelligent foreman of the 
propagating department, Mr. Croucher, under whose care the 
succulent plants of the Royal Garden are placed, and to whose 
zeal and especial love for this class of plants the collection 
owes much of its value and interest. It is closely allied to 
A. candicans, Haworth; but besides differing in colouring 
of the foliage, in the copiously branched, dense-flowered in- 
florescence, in the much larger flowers with the tube ventri- 
cose, and white with green stripes above the middle, it is in 
every way a handsomer species. In many respects it resembles 
even more closely the A. acinacifolia, Jacq. (Tab. Nost. 2369), 
but that has more attenuated leaves, and the supplementary 
keel of the leaf, which is on the right-hand side of the upper 
surface of the leaf, in 4. acinacifolia, is on the left in A. 
Croucheri (on the right in the plate, owing to an oversight in 
not reversing the drawing when it was transferred to the 
stone). 
i de followed the usual practice in regarding Gasteria as 
a division of Aloe, but I suspect that it will prove to be as 
DECEMBER Ist, 1869. 
