220 THE ASSOClATIOlSiS OF FLOWERS 
which befel the lonely lady. O’Connor’s fair and lovely 
child was the bride of Moran, who fell beneath the hand 
of the lady’s own brother. She chose for her home the 
wild spot where he fell, and where she buried him. 
“ A hero’s bride, this desert bower, 
It ill befits thy gentle breeding ; 
And wherefore dost thou love the flower 
To call — my love lies bleeding? 
This purple flower my tears have nurst, 
A hero’s blood supplied its bloom; 
I love it for it was the first 
That grew on Connocht Moran’s tomb. 
* * * * * 
Nor would I change my buried love 
For any heart of living mould ; 
No, for I am a hero’s child. 
I’ll hunt my quarry in the wild. 
And still my home this mansion make. 
Of all unheeded and unheeding, 
And cherish, for my warrior’s sake, 
The flower of love lies bleeding.” 
The species of amaranth which forms the subject of this 
poem is the well-known Amaranthus caudatus, which we 
have from India. Many kinds of amaranth are common, 
some shaped like fans, others in round heads and other 
forms. The drooping kind was formerly called florimor, 
or flower gentile, or purple velvet flower, or “ discipline 
de religieuse.” 
The old herbalist, Lyte, says of it, “ The wemen of 
Italic make great accompt of this kinde, because of the 
pleasant beautie; so that ye shall not lightly come into 
any garden there that has not this herbe in it.” 
But we have wandered long from the flower which sug- 
gested the remarks on the names of plants — ^the flower 
dedicated to St. John the Baptist, anciently called Fuga 
doemonum, and still gathered in some countries on St. 
John’s day. The name of this flower recalls to mind the 
festivities formerly practised in England on the vigil of 
this saint, when the bonfire was lighted, and young men 
