AMARANTHUS. 163 



Gerarde thus speaks of it : 



" It farre exceedeth my skill to describe the beauty and 

 excellencie of this rare plant, called Floramor ; and I thinke 

 the pensil of the most curious painter will be at a stay, when 

 he shall come to set it downe in his lively colours. But to 

 colour it after my best manner, this I say, Floramor hath a 

 thicke, knobby root, whereon do grow many threddie strings ; 

 from which ariseth a thicke stalke, but tender and soft, which 

 beginneth to divide itself into sundry branches at the ground, 

 and so vpward, whereupon doth grow many leaves, wherein 

 does consist his beauty : for in few words, euerie leafe resem- 

 bleth in colour the most faire and beautifull feather of a Parot, 

 especially those feathers that are mixed with most sundry col- 

 ours, as a stripe of red, and a line of yellow, a dash of white, 

 and a rib of green colour, which I cannot with words set forth, 

 such are the sundry mixture of colours that Nature hath be- 

 stowed, in her greatest jolitie, vpon this floure. The floure 

 doth grow betweene the footstalks of those leaves and the body 

 of the stalk or trunk, base, and of no moment in respect of the 

 leaves, being as it were little chaffie husks of an ouerworne 

 tawny colour ; the seed is black, and shining like burnished 

 home." 



A. hypochondriacus. Prince's Feather. This is a hardy 

 annual, well known, four or five feet high, with numerous 

 heads of purplish-crimson flowers, suitable for the shrubbery. 



A. superbus is an improved variety of the last ; flowers dark 

 red ; three to four feet high ; from June to September. 



A. caudatus. Love-lies-bleeding. This is also a well- 

 known hardy annual, from three to four feet high, with blood- 

 red flowers, which hang in pendant spikes, and, at a little dis- 

 tance, look like streams of blood ; in July and August. It is 

 sometimes called, in France, " Discipline des religieuses" 

 the Nun's Whipping-rope. 



There is another variety, with straw-colored flowers, but it is 

 too mean-looking for the flower-garden. 



