BACHELOR'S BUTTON 



words, awar has been considered amor and the unfading flower 

 becomes the flower of love." 



All the Amaranths are coarse annuals, most of them undesira- 

 ble weeds, but a few Asiatic species whose persistent bracts are 

 red and not brown have been welcomed to the garden. 



Love-Lies-Bleeding, Amarantus Gangeticus, bears tall red spikes 

 more or less branching but blunt, thick, and lumpy. The central 

 spike is longer than the others and drooping. 



Prince's Feather, Amarantus candatus, is similar, but with up- 

 right instead of pendent inflorescence, a somewhat coarser plant; 

 Joseph's Coat, Amarantus tricolor, has foliage marked with red, 

 violet, or yellow, and its stems and stalks are red. It, as well as 

 Love-Lies-Bleeding, is a variety of Amarantus Gangeticus, which 

 also is grown by the Chinese in America as a potherb. 



BACHELOR'S BUTTON. GLOBE AMARANTH 



Gomphrena glolbsa. 



Gomphrena, a corrupted ancient name for a species of amaranth; 

 referring to the highly colored foliage of some species. 



An annual, bearing terminal, globular flower-heads, whose. persistent, 

 colored bracts give them the character of everlasting flowers. India. 

 July, October. 



Stem.— Twelve to eighteen inches high. 



Leaves. —Elhptic to obovate, acute, downy. 



Flower-heads.— Globose, about an inch in diameter; bracts per- 

 sistent, concave, keeled, purple in the type, hiding the true flowers. 



Calyx. — Five-parted, packed in woolly hairs. 



Stamens.— Five, filaments united to form a tube within which is the 

 one-celled ovary. 



Fruit.— A one-seeded utricle. 



The Globe Amaranth was introduced into England from India 

 in 1 7 14 and has, from the first, enjoyed considerable popularity. 

 The flower-heads are spherical, an inch or more in diameter. 

 The persistent bracts are very brilhantly colored, and if. the heads 



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