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IMMORTALITY. 
AMARANTH. 
The amaranth is one of the latest gifts of 
autumn, and when dead its flowers retain 
their rich scarlet colour. The ancients have 
associated it with supreme honours; choos¬ 
ing it to adorn the brows of their gods. 
Poets have sometimes mingled its bright 
hue with the dark and gloomy cypress, wish¬ 
ing to express that their sorrows were com¬ 
bined with everlasting recollections. Homer 
tel.s us, that at the funeral of Achilles, the 
Thessalians presented themselves wearing 
crowns of amaranth. 
Milton, in his gorgeous description of the 
court of heaven, mentions the amaranth as 
being inwoven in the diadems of angels — 
With solemn adoration 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 ; hut soon for man’s offence 
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, 
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, 
And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven 
Bolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream, 
With those that never fade. 
Pope mentions this flower in his Ode for 
