THE AMARANTH. 



and their flowers retain the brightness of their colour when 

 dried. This property has gained for them the name Ama- 

 rantos (o dfiapavro^), unfading, or the never-fading flower, 

 which PHny says is of a purple colour, velvety, and, though 

 gathered, keeps its beauty while all others fade, and recovers 

 its lustre if sprinkled with water. 



The ancients were accustomed to make use of this flower 

 In their religious ceremonies, and to deck their images with it. 

 Poets have sometimes combined its lustre with the gloom of 

 the cypress, as though they would intimate that their great 

 sorrow for the dead was allied with enduring remembrances. 



Malherbe, a French poet, who lived 1555 — 1628, assuming 

 that his own fame was allied to that of his hero, says to 

 Henri Quatre : — 



" Ta louange dans mes vers, d'Amarante couronnee, 

 Naura sa fin terminee qu'en celle de I'univers." 



Love and friendship are also adorned with Amaranth. In 

 the " Guirlande de Julie," the following lines claim the 

 Amaranth as the appropriate flower wherewith to crown the 

 gods : — 



" Je suis la fleur d'amour qu'Amarante appelle 

 Et qui viens de Julie adorer les beaux yeux. 

 Roses, retirez-vous, j'ai le nom d'immortelle, 

 II n'appartient qu'a moi de couronner les dieux." 



In a pleasant idyl. Constant Dubos has sung so sweetly of 

 this flower, regarding it as in some measure consoling us for 

 the severity of winter, that we cannot refrain from quoting a 



II 





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