123 



The laurel is usually found on rocky or barren soil in hilly 

 regions, ranging from New Brunswick and Ontario southward to 

 Florida and Louisiana and blooms in May to July according to 

 its range. 



The earliest account of Kalmia latifolia appeared in 1705 in the 

 "Almatheum Botanicum" of Plukenet, who figured it very 

 poorly and it was named by Linnaeus in 1753. It was also 

 described and figured in a colored plate by Marc Catesby in 

 1 771 in his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama 

 Islands, who introduced it into cultivation. The following is 

 his account: 



"As all plants have their peculiar beauties, it is difficult to 

 assign to any one an elegance excelling all others; yet, considering 

 the curious structure of the flower, and beautiful appearance of 

 this whole plant, I know of no shrub that has a better claim to it. 

 After several unsuccessful attempts to propagate it from seeds, I 

 procured plants of it at several times from America, but with 

 little better success; for they gradually diminished, and pro- 

 duced no blossoms, till my curious friend, Mr. Peter Collinson, 

 excited by a view of its dried specimens and description of it, 

 procured some plants of it from Pennsylvania; which climate 

 being nearer to that of England, than from whence mine came, 

 some bunches of blossoms were produced in July, 1740, and in 

 1 74 1, in my garden at Fulham." 



The laurel belongs to the Ericaceae, or Heath family, as do 

 the azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries and arbutus, and it 

 has been conclusively shown by Mr. Coville, Botanist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, that 

 what they need for successful cultivation, is an acid soil and an 

 abundance of leaf mould. The arbutus has been grown in pots 

 from seed and it may be that at no distant date, it may be forced 

 as tulips and hyacinths are now, for Easter. Rhododendrons and 

 laurel are being shipped in carload lots by dealers from the moun- 

 tains of Pennsylvania and the southern Alleghanies, who supply 

 florists and nurserymen from wild sources. How long can they 

 last? 



Elizabeth G. Brixton. 



