AMARANTH. 2» 



ble. *' The compost employed was of the most 

 nutritive and stimulating kind, consisting of one 

 part of unfermented horse-dung, fresh from the 

 stable, and without litter, one part of burnt turf, 

 one part of decayed leaves, and two parts of green 

 turf, the latter being in lumps of about an inch 

 in diameter, in order to keep the mass so hollow, 

 that the water might have free liberty to escape, 

 and the air to enter." 



The seeds were sown in spring rather late, and 

 the plants put first into pots of four inches dia- 

 meter, and then transplanted to others a foot in 

 diameter, the object being not to compress the 

 roots, as that has a tendency to accelerate the 

 flowering of all vegetables. The plants were 

 placed within a few inches of the glass, in a heat 

 of from 70° to 100°; they were watered with 

 pigeon-dung water, and due attention paid to 

 remove the side branches when very young, so 

 as to produce one strong head or flower. — Hort, 

 Trans, iv, 322. 



There are varieties of the Cock's Comb, with 

 heads of an orange yellow, bright red, purple, 

 and white, and the form of the crests are so va- 

 riable as seldom to give two of the same shape. 



In the floral games, at Toulouse, the prize of 

 the finest lyric poems is an Amaranth of gold. 



S 2 



