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MARANTH. , Class 21,. Order:. 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; choosing it to adorn the brows of their gods. Poets have sometimes mingled its bright hue with the dark and gloomy cypress, wishing to express that their sorrows were combined with everlasting recollections. Homer tells 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—

Pope mentions this flower in his Ode for St. Cecilia’s day; imagining it to be found in celestial bowers;—