CLASS MONGEQU. 



191 



forms a striking contrast with its mean appearance. This genus, 

 however, contains some elegant, foreign species ; one of which, 

 Amaranthus melancholicus, has received the whimsical name of 

 Love-lies-bleeding; probably from the circumstance of its long, red 

 fiower-staiks drooping and often reclining upon the ground. Another 

 species, called Prince's feather, is always erect. The Cock's-comb 

 is a well known plant of this genus. The Amaranth, whether from 

 its being a good word to fall in with poetical measure, or from some 

 fancied intrinsic beauty, has ever been a favourite with poets. Milton 

 says of the angels, 



-" To the ground, 



With solemn admiration, down they cast 



Their crowns inwove with amaranth and gold; 



Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 



In Paradise, fast by the tree of hfe, 



Began to bloom, but soon for man's offence, 



To Heaven removed. 



With flowers that never fade, the spirits elect 



Bind their resplendent locks, inwreathed with beams." 



In Portugal and other warm countries, the Globe Amaranth is 

 used for adorning the churches in winter. 



Order Polyandria. 



This order contains many of the most useful and beautiful of our 

 forest trees, forming the natural order, Amentacece. Fig. 147 repre- 

 sents a branch of the Corylus, (Hazle-nut ;) at a, are the aments or 

 catkins, formed wholly of staminate flowers ; at b, is a bract or 

 scale of the anient with adhering stamens ; at c, are the pistillate 

 flowers surrounded with scales ; at rf, is a pistillate flower, having 

 two styles. The oak, beach, walntit, chestnut, birch, &c., bear their 

 staminate flowers in nodding aments ; their pistillate flowers are 



Fig. 148 



surrounded with scales for calyxes. The stems of 

 these plants are woody and exogenous ; you will re- 

 collect that such stems increase in diameter by new 

 wood being formed around the old, and that this new 

 wood is formed from the cambium which flows down- 

 ward between the wood and bark. Fig. 148 shows 

 a portion of the trunk of an oak, supporting the stem 

 of a twining plant. As the oak is a dicotyledonous 

 tree, its trunk is annually increased by new layers 

 which are developed between the bark and wood ; — 

 hence it will be seen, that if any foreign substance 

 encircles the trunk, it must, in time, produce a protu- 

 berance. The cambium from which the new layers 

 are formed, is interrupted in descending, and accumu- 

 lates just above the interposing body, forming the swell- 

 ings that appear there, as are represented in the cut 

 III ''11 Walking canes are often made of stems thus knotted. 

 i lllll'il '^^^ Celastris scandens is one of the most common 

 ill lil ^"^^"i^^ plants of our woods. 

 This order contains the genus Calla, of which we have some 

 native species, and which includes the elegant exotic, Calla ethio- 

 pica, or Egyptian lily. In this genus, the flowers having neither 

 calyx nor corolla, grow upon that kind of receptacle which is called 

 a spadix ; the staminate and pistillate flowers are intermixed, the 



Different species of the Amaranthus — Order Polyandria— What is said of the na- 

 tural order Amen'accae ?— Explain Fig. 148— Calla— Different species. 



