i 4 2 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES 



mother's aprons if they do not like the appearance 

 of the coming stranger. Perhaps they do with- 

 draw at discretion, and this is very likely why some 

 people who come from far to hunt find many may- 

 flowers, while others get few or none. 



Just as the Mayflower in which the Pilgrims 

 sailed to Plymouth seems to have been but one 

 of many English ships of that name, so the trail- 

 ing arbutus is not the only flower to be called 

 mayflower in New England. The mayflower of 

 the English fields and hedgerows was pre-emi- 

 nently the hawthorn, known often just as "the 

 may." But there is a species of bitter cress in Eng- 

 land with showy flowers, Cardamine pratensis, 

 which is also called mayflower, and the name is 

 given to the yellow bloom of the marsh marigold, 

 Caltha palustris, often known, less lovingly, as 

 " blobs." The Caltha is common to both Europe 

 and America, and, though it is often hereabout 

 known by the nickname of " cowslip " which the 

 early English settlers seem to have given it, I do 

 not hear it called mayflower. In localities where 

 the arbutus is not common the name mayflower is 

 here most commonly given to the pink and white 



