The New Student's Reference Work/Arbutus

Arbutus (ar' bu-tus or ar-bu' tus), trailing arbutus, mayflower or ground laurel, belongs to the heath family. It is one of the loveliest of our wealth of wild blossoms. The leaf often presents a time-worn and rusty appearance, but the waxy, pink blossoms are of rare delicate beauty and exquisite fragrance. After the spring rains the new leaves come and show glossy green, the later sprays the finest specimens of both flower and foliage. It is a shy blossom, does not take kindly to transplanting in cultivated garden, prefers the distant pine woods or sandy beach by pine-wood lake. Frequently in moss, too, the arbutus grows, but in moss of sand rather than loam. It is found from the Maine woods south to Florida, abounds in the northern pine forests of the Middle West and is a familiar and beloved flower of New England. It is a brave little blossom; its buds formed the preceding fall, are all ready to come forth while yet another snow storm may be expected. The plant trails on the ground, and the sun on the sandy soil forces the bloom. A few warm days in early spring are sufficient encouragement, and often after the rosy little faces have shown themselves a snowfall will whiten the ground around them. The poet, Whittier, tells of the joy the weary Pilgrims, after their hard winter, took in this early blossom—which abounds in the vicinity of Plymouth—

          "Yet God be praised!" the Pilgrim said,
               Who saw the blossoms peer
            Above the brown leaves, dry and dead."

The Indians say when there is most moisture the flowers are pinkest, and they do show pallid in a dry season. The stem is prostrate or trailing, some petals quite buried in the sand, no branch high above the ground—one must stoop low to pluck the posies. The flowers grow in clusters, many attached to the woody central stem; they may be gathered in graceful sprays, but by the Indian venders are cut off short and made up into compact little bunches. In gathering the arbutus greediness should be controlled, the plant not uprooted, else, as is the case near the eastern cities, the beautiful blossom will be pushed farther and farther back from town and village, and in the end become extinct.