CLASS MONCECIA. 
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 circmnstance of its long, red 
flower-stalks drooping and often rechning 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 life. 
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 Vv^arm 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 is a bract or 
scale of the ament with adhering stamens ; at c, are the pistillate 
flowers surrounded with scales ; at c?, is a pistillate flower, having 
two styles. The oak, beach, walnut, 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. 
Walking canes are often made of stems thus knotted. 
The Celastris scandens is one of the most common 
twining plants of our woods. 
This order contains the genus Calla, of which v/e 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 — W^hat is said of the na 
tural order Amen tacese ?— Explain Fig. 143— Calla— Different species. 
