246 
Amaranth 
the churches at Christmas-time with the amaranth, as an em¬ 
blem of that immortality which their faith bids them look 
forward to : to the lover it is ever a symbol of undying love. 
Shelley introduces this flower into his poem of “ Rosalind 
and Helen,” as suitable to wear in a chaplet; thus he says: 
“Whose sad inhabitants each year would come 
With willing steps, climbing that rugged height, 
And hang long locks of hair, and garlands bound 
With amaranth flowers, which, in the clime’s despite. 
Filled the frore air with unaccustomed light. 
Such flowers as in the wintry memory bloom 
Of one friend left, adorned that frozen tomb. ” 
There is a passage in “ Don Quixote,” in which are depicted 
gonig Spanish ladies clad like beautiful shepherdesses, except 
that their bodices and petticoats were of fine biocade, theii 
habits of rich golden tabby; they wore their hair, which 
rivalled the sun’s rays in brightness, hanging loose about their 
shoulders, and their heads were crowned with garlands of green 
laurel and the scarlet blossoms of the amaranth interwoven. 
The people of the Batta country, in Sumatra or Tamara, 
when undisturbed by war, are said to lead a lazy, inactive life, 
passing the day in playing on a kind of flute, ci owned with 
garlands of flowers, of which the Globe Amaranth is the 
favourite. Moore notes this partiality in his ever-blooming 
rhyme : 
“Amaranths such as crown the maids 
That wander through Tamara’s shades.” 
Although the amaranths are chiefly natives of America, and 
very few are supposed to grow naturally in Europe, yet Sir 
William Jones speaks of them in terms that would imply that 
they grew wild in Wales : 
“Fair Tivy, how sweet are thy waves gently flowing, 
Thy wild oaken woods and green eglantine bowers, 
Thy banks with the blush-rose and amaranth glowing, 
While friendship and mirth claim their labourless hours.” 
