46 
DROPS FROM FLORA’S COP, 
THE AMARANTH. 
The ancicnte associated the amaranth with their greatest honors, and 
adorned the brows of their gods with it. 
It is one of the latest flowers of Autumn, and retains after it is dead 
its rich deep scarlet. Milton, in describing the court of heaven, tells us 
that angels — 
With solemn adoration down they cast 
Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold; 
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 
In Paradise, fast hy the tree of life, 
Began to bloom; hut soon for man’s offence 
To heaven removed, where it first grew, there 
grows, 
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, 
And where the river of bliss through midst of 
heaven 
Kolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream, 
With those that never fade. 
‘ Its flowers of crimsom hue bedropped with 
Thousand sparkling gems.’ 
‘ The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue. 
The only lasting treasure truth.’ 
