Family: Amaranthaceae.

Synonyms:Love-Lies-Bleeding, Red Cockscomb, Velvet Flower, Flower-gentle, Flower-velure, Floramor, Prince’s Feather.

It runneth up with a stalk which is streaked and somewhat reddish towards the root. It has long, broad reddish-green leaves and flowers which are more like tufts.

Many species are widely distributed as pernicious weeds. Their economic importance is slight, their properties chiefly proteid nutrient. Many abound in mucilage and sugar and many species are used as pot-herbs, resembling those of Chenopodiaceae. Many, also, are excellent fodder-plants, though not cultivated.

Medical Action and Uses

Some species have slightly astringent properties, others are diaphoretics and diuretics, and a few are tonics and stimulants.

The flowers, dried and beaten into powder, stop the terms in women. The flowers stop all fluxes of blood, whether in man or woman, bleeding either at the nose or wound. There is also a sort of Amaranthus that bears a white flower, which stops the whites in women, and the running of the reins in men, and is a most gallant anti-venereal, and a singular remedy for the French pox.