EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 9 



I like the name because of its Knickerbocker flavor, 

 and although it is suggestive of a bit of rude hu- 

 mor, it is not without a certain poetic significance. 

 The word Dutchman, to be sure, is so loosely used 

 nowadays that it does not suggest much more than 

 the unromantic personality of the prosaic corner 

 grocer, but I have yet to find the American wno is 

 ashamed of his Dutch blood ! So I do not think we 

 need be ashamed because one of our wild flowers 

 bears the name " Dutchman's breeches." * Breeches, 

 it is true, sounds a bit unrefined, but I insist that it 

 is poetic ; substitute the modern " pants " for it, 

 imagine, if possible, Hendrick Hudson clothed in 

 them, and, presto ! all the poetry attached to the 

 romantic vigils in the Catskills is gone. There are 

 two flowers which are inseparably associated in my 

 mind with Rip Van Winkle and Hendrick Hud- 

 son one is Dutchman's breeches and the other is 

 Indian pipe ; both of them are ghostly white, and 

 both are commonly found in the country of the 

 Dutch settlers. Why not let Dutchman's breeches 



* That these at least possessed magnificent proportions the 

 following historical incident certainly proves beyond a shadow of 

 doubt : Some Indians were induced by a settler to sell for a small 

 consideration as much of their land as could be bounded by a pair 

 of breeches. To their chagrin the Dutchman cut his ample 

 breeches into narrow strips, and sewing these together formed 

 with them so long a strip that it encompassed several acres ! 



