112 JSotan^ 



the ingenious contrivance of these flowers to secure 

 also their cross fertilization. The corolla is wheel- 

 shaped, with five lobes ; each of these lobes has two 

 depressions ; in each of these ten depressions of the 

 corolla lies one of the ten stamens, its long filament 

 recurved and its anther, the true jewel of this jewel- 

 box, carefully lodged in the tiny pink niche which 

 exactly fits it. So firmly are these anthers held 

 back that the filament is arched in a little bow above 

 the surface of the petals. When the anthers have 

 ripened their pollen the}' are large for their resting- 

 place, and their hold upon it is loosened, but they 

 retain their position from habit, until some insect, 

 lured by the pink chalice, alights upon it, or passing 

 bee or butterfly brushes it with fleet wing. Then, 

 in a second, all these little resorts snap back, up 

 springs each stamen with violence, the anthers are 

 jerked from their niches, the pollen flies out in such 

 a golden shower as fell over Danae, the destiny of 

 the blossom is accomplished, its stigma has received 

 from the body of its insect visitor the pollen of some 

 other laurel bush, and this laurel has sent its own 

 contingent to blossoms far away. Happy, indeed, 

 was the Swiss Peter Kalm, the assistant of Linnaeus, 

 to have his name immortalized by this lovely plant, 

 the mountain, or wide-leaved Kalmia. 



Near the seacoast we find a tiny pattern of this 



