THE AMARANTH. 



109 



The instinct that has led to the choice or creation 

 of these natural or artificial everlastings is easily ac- 

 counted for. Most of those that come to this country 

 from France and Germany are used at Christmas-time, 

 when all vegetation is dead or dormant out of doors, 

 and even the conservatory has hardly a blossom to 

 show. They also supply the place of freshly-cut 

 flowers in other seasons when these fail or the re- 

 sources are not equal to the demand. But the deeper 

 reason doubtless is the desire which every one feels 

 to perpetuate the beauty of the world around us. 

 The saddest thing about that beauty is its evanescent 

 character. When the summer foliage has developed 

 its utmost fulness of form and hue, it begins to fade; 

 when the plant crowns its life- with the radiant blossom, 

 in that self-kindled flame of loveliness it expires. The 

 height of its perfection is the funeral pyre upon which 

 it is consumed into the grey ashes out of which it 

 arose. We wish to arrest this beauty that captivates 

 us and make it our own for ever. And hence the 

 favour with which we regard those flowers, which in 

 nature seem to escape the general doom of decay, and 

 preserve their charms uninjured by autumn's blight 

 or winter's frost ; that once perfected keep intact the 

 seal of that perfection for ever, and henceforth know 

 no quickening thrill of spring, or magic unfolding of 

 summer, but remain for ever the same. These em- 

 balmed flowers floral mummies or beautiful fossils 

 of the air, as they may be called, conserve for us 

 the passing beauty of the world and the glory of the 



