they win from many of us the gladdest recognition of the year.
In New England they are called Mayflowers, being peddled about the streets of Boston every spring, under the suggestive and loudly emphasized title of “Ply-y-mouth Ma-ayflowers!” Whether they owe this name to the ship which is responsible for so much, or to their season of blooming, in certain localities, might remain an open question had we not the authority of Whittier for attributing it to both causes. In a note prefacing “The Mayflowers,” the poet says: “The trailing arbutus or Mayflower grows abundantly in the vicinity of Plymouth, and was the first flower to greet the Pilgrims after their fearful winter.” In the poem itself he wonders what the old ship had
Within her ice-rimmed bay
In common with the wild-wood flowers,
The first sweet smiles of May?
and continues—
Yet “God be praised!” the Pilgrim said,
Who saw the blossoms peer
Above the brown leaves, dry and dead,
“Behold our Mayflower here!”