PLYMOUTH MAYFLOWERS 143 



Anemone nemorosa, the wind flower of the 

 meadow margins and low woods, and to the rock 

 saxifrage, Saxifraga virginiensis, both of which 

 are among the earliest blossoms of the month. 



None can visit Plymouth without wishing to 

 climb the bold promontory of " hither Manomet." 

 The legend has it that Eric the Red, the Viking 

 who explored the New England shores centuries 

 before the first Englishman heard of them, made 

 this his burial hill and that somewhere beneath its 

 forests his bones lie to this day. I sought long 

 for mayflowers on the seaward slopes and in the 

 rough gullies of these " highlands of Plymouth." 

 I did not find them there. 



On the landward slopes, gentler and less wind- 

 swept, down toward the " sweet waters " that 

 flow from inland to the sea, you may with patient 

 search find many. But the heights shall reward 

 you, if not with mayflowers with greater and more 

 lasting joys. The woods of Manomet were full 

 of butterflies. Splendid specimens of Vanessa 

 antiopa danced together by twos and threes in 

 every sunny glade, the gold edging of bright rai- 

 ment showing beneath their " mourning cloaks " 



