THE AMARANTH. 



tigers and lions delight to breathe. While we admire these 

 flowers which adorn a climate so noxious to our constitutions, 

 we ought to be thankful that our lot has fallen in more 

 pleasant places. Here friendly Nature raises over our heads, 

 on every side, verdant bowers ; here she spreads under our feet 

 a green carpet of grass, variegated by the purple crocus, the 

 violet, the pretty daisj' with its golden disk and white and 

 rosy petals, and other pleasing products of Flora's domain. 



The Aloe is used medicinally ; the coarser kinds for 

 domestic animals, the finer sorts for hepatic affections in the 

 human species. It is intensely bitter. The roots, by which it 

 is kept fixed in position, are very slender. Some of the more 

 curious seem to derive nourishment chiefly from the atmo- 

 sphere, and these present to us singular and bizarre figures. 



Since disappointments, adversities and calamities, produce 

 grief and bitterness of feeling, and thus tend to alienate our 

 affections from surrounding objects ; and, if they produce 

 their best effect, lead us to seek comfort and support of a 

 permanent character from the highest sources ; so the bitter 

 savour of the Aloe and its slight attachment to the earth, 

 have suggested that it may fitly represent Bitterness and 

 Grief in floral language. 



THE AMARANTH.— Immortality, Unfading. 



Some of the species of this order are ornamental, but the 

 greater number are unattractive in appearance. They are 

 prized because they seem to be the parting gift of autumn, 



