_Caltha palustris_
_Flowers_--Bright, shining yellow, 1 to 1-1/2 in. across, a few in
terminal and axillary groups. No petals; usually 5 (often more) oval,
petal-like sepals; stamens numerous; many pistils (carpels) without
styles. _Stem:_ Stout, smooth, hollow, branching, 1 to 2 ft. high.
_Leaves:_ Mostly from root, rounded, broad, and heart-shaped at base, or
kidney-shaped, upper ones almost sessile, lower ones on fleshy petioles.
_Preferred Habitat_--Springy ground, low meadows, swamps, river
banks, ditches.
_Flowering Season_--April-June.
_Distribution_--Carolina to Iowa, the Rocky Mountains, and very
far north.
Not a true marigold, and even less a cowslip, it is by these names
that this flower, which looks most like a buttercup, will continue to
be called, in spite of the protests of scientific classifiers.
Doubtless the first of these folk-names refers to its use in church
festivals during the Middle Ages as one of the blossoms devoted to the
Virgin Mary.
“And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes,”
sing the musicians in “Cymbeline.” Whoever has seen the watery Avon
meadows in April, yellow and twinkling with marsh marigolds when “the
lark at heaven’s gate sings,” appreciates why the commentators incline
to identify Shakespeare’s Mary-buds with the _Caltha_ of these and our
own marshes.
But we know well that not for poets’ high-flown rhapsodies but rather
for the more welcome hum of bees and flies intent on breakfasting, do
these flowers open in the morning sunshine.
Some country people who boil the young plants declare these “greens” are
as good as spinach. What sacrilege to reduce crisp, glossy, beautiful
leaves like these to a slimy mess in a pot! The tender buds, often used
in white sauce as a substitute for capers, probably do not give it the
same piquancy where piquancy is surely most needed--on boiled mutton,
said to be Queen Victoria’s favorite dish. Hawked about the streets in
tight bunches, the Marsh Marigold blossoms--with half their yellow
sepals already dropped--and the fragrant, pearly, pink arbutus are the
most familiar spring wild flowers seen in Eastern cities.