206 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



But whatever may have been the original plant which 

 gave rise to the amaranth of the Elysian fields, it has 

 come in our common language to be regarded, not as 

 .a distinct botanical species, but as the type of a peculiar 

 class of plants, comprehending many species and even 

 genera, which, on account of their dry, juiceless texture, 

 retain their colour and form indefinitely, and are there- 

 fore called immortelles, or everlasting flowers. How- 

 ever widely they may differ in other respects, all these 

 curious plants have one remarkable feature in common. 

 The petals of the corolla, which in other plants are 

 usually the largest and most brilliant parts of the inflor- 

 escence, in them are reduced to the smallest size, and 

 are made sober and inconspicuous ; while the sepals 

 of the calyx and the bracts, which in other plants are 

 modest and subordinate, assume in them the predomin- 

 ance, are gaily coloured, and owing to their naturally 

 dry, scarious texture are permanent and indestructible. 

 The petals of flowers being the parts most modified 

 from the typical leaf of vegetation, and having only a 

 temporary purpose to serve, are exceedingly fugacious ; 

 whereas the sepals and the bracts are parts compara- 

 tively little modified, have a more continuous use in the 

 economy of the plant, and are therefore usually more 

 persistent. It is to the durability and showiness of their 

 involucral bracts therefore, more than to their actual 

 florets, that the beauty of the everlastings is due. The 

 great majority of the species are natives of warm coun- 

 tries, such as South Africa and Australia, where the 

 vegetation generally is less succulent and more leathery- 



