HEATH FAMILY 



tough, keeping close to the ground. The dull old 

 leaves that have endured the stress of winter storms 

 are rusty and spotted, but it is they that do duty as 

 foliage while the flowers are blooming; the new leaves 

 develop later. 



The name Mayflower for the hawthorn, familiar in 

 England, as its application to the historic vessel shows, 

 was applied by the Pilgrims to this plant, whose green 

 leaves and pink buds bore an early message of hope and 

 courage to the far-away wanderers. 



"Yet, 'God be praised,' the Pilgrim said, 

 Who saw the blossoms peer 

 Above the brown leaves, dry and dead, 

 'Behold our Mayflower here ! 



" *God wills It, here our rest shall be, 

 Our years of wandering o'er; 

 For us the Mayflower of the sea 

 Shall spread her sails no more.' 



"O sacred flowers of faith and hope, 

 As sweetly now as then 

 Ye bloom on many a birchen slope 

 In many a pine-dark glen." 



— Whittier. 



The Mayflower is a plant still in the state of tran- 

 sition. We find blossoms having both stamens and 

 pistils, others having only stamens, still others having 

 only pistils. These flowers are sometimes all on the 

 same plant; sometimes all the flowers of one plant are 

 staminate, all of another are pistillate. Moreover, the 

 stamens and pistils vary among themselves, sometimes 

 short pistils go with long stamens, sometimes long 



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