ALTHEA, FRUTEX.
Hibiscus, Syriacus.

Class 16. Order 13. (Syrian Mallow,) a shrub 4 to 6 feet high. Native of the East. Flowers white and rose color.

CONSUMED BY LOVE.

The fable of Althea and her unfortunate son, who lost his life in consequence of his love for the beautiful Atalanta-his consuming away as the fatal brand was burning, suggested the emblem of Consumed by love.'

Flora's Dictionary.

SENTIMENT.

Comfort cannot soothe

The heart whose life is centred in the thought
Of happy loves, once known, and still in hope,
Living with a consuming energy.

Percival.

ANSWER.

Go, kneel a worshipper at Nature's shrine!
For you her rivers flow, her hills arise;
For you her fields are green, and fair her skies;
And will you scorn them all, to pour your tame
And heartless lays of forced or fancied sighs?

J. R. Drake.

ALOE.
Aloe.

Class 6. Order 1. Native of the Cape of Good Hope, Egypt, etc. The flower of the Aloe has no calyx. A bitter and medicinal juice is extracted from the leaves.

RELIGIOUS SUPERSTITION.

In climes beneath the solar ray,
Where beams intolerable day,
And arid plains in silence spread,
The pale green Aloe lifts its head-
The mystic branch at Moslem's door
Betokens travel long and sore
In Mecca's weary pilgrimage.

Flora's Dictionary.

SENTIMENT.

All tenderness you seemed,
Gentle and social as a playful child;
But now in lonely superstition wrapped,
As on an icy mountain-top thou sittest
Lonely and unapproachable, or tossed
Upon the surge of passion, like the wreck
Of some proud Tyrian in the stormy sea.

Hillhouse.

AMARANTH.

Amaranthus.

Class 19. Order 5. (Prince's Feather,) a genus of nearly 40 species; almost exclusively confined to India and North America. Only three species in Europe -flowers crimson.

IMMORTALITY.

Immortal Amaranth! a flower which once
In paradise, fast by the tree of life
Began to bloom; but soon, for man's offence,
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there
And flowers aloft, shading the tree of life.

grows

Milton.

SENTIMENT.

And with our frames do perish all our loves?
Do those who took their root and put forth buds,
And there soft leaves unfolded in the warmth
Of mutual hearts, grow up and live in beauty,
Then fade and fall like fair unconscious flowers?

*

*

*

*

*

A voice within us speaks that startling word,
'Man, thou shalt never die!' Celestial voices
Hymn it unto our souls: according harps,
By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars
Of morning sang together, sound forth still
The song of our great immortality.

Dana.

AMARANTH, GLOBE.
Gomphrena, globosa.

Class 5. Order 5. (Everlasting.) Native of India. There are several varieties of this species; white, purple, and variegated. They resemble, in their form, heads of clover.

UNCHANGEABLE.

And hang long locks of hair, and garlands bound,
With Amaranth flowers,—

Such flowers as in the wintry memory bloom,
Of one friend left.

SENTIMENT.

Southey.

Think not, beloved, time can break

The spell around us cast,

Or absence from my bosom take

The memory of the past:

My love is not that silvery mist,

From summer blooms by sunbeams kissed,
Too fugitive to last—

A fadeless flower, it still retains

The brightness of its earlier stains.

Nor burns it like the raging fire,
In tainted breast which glows;
All wild and thorny as the brier,
Without its opening rose:
A gentler, holier love is mine,
Unchangeable and firm, while thine
Is pure as mountain snows;

Nor yet has passion dared to breathe
A spell o'er Love's immortal wreath.

Anon. (Albany Advertiser.)

AMARYLLIS.

Formosissima.

Class 6. Order 1. A very splendid and numerous genus, chiefly tropical, and principally indigenous to America and the southern extremity of Africa. Flowers deep red.

BEAUTIFUL, BUT TIMID.

When heaven's high vault condensing clouds deform,
Fair Amaryllis flies the incumbent storm,
Seeks with unsteady steps the sheltered vale,
And turns her blushing beauties from the gale.

Darwin.

SENTIMENT.

She looked, how lovely.-Not the face of heaven
In its serenest colors, nor earth in all

Its garniture of flowers, nor all that live

In the bright world of dreams, nor all the eye
Of a creative spirit meets in air,

Could, in the smile and sunshine of her charms,
Not feel itself o'ermastered by such rare

And perfect beauty:-Yet she bore herself
So gently, that the lily on its stalk

Bends not so easily its dewy head.

Percival.