Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



mountain-laurel — Kalmia latifolia — that in June breaks 

 out into a broad, compact mass of blossoms, varying 

 from white to rose-color, each shaped like a miniature 

 bowl with a row of ten depressions around the mid- 

 dle, in each of which an anther is neatly socketed. A 

 smaller and less showy sort is the narrow-leaved laurel — 

 K. angustifolia — often found in open pasture-land, and 

 called lambkill by farmers. This is doubtless a false 

 and unkind aspersion ; very possibly foolish lambs have 

 indigestion after eating it ; so would a three-months-old 

 baby, if fed with meat and potato ; and there is proba- 

 bly as much inherent poison in the one case as in the 

 other. 



Another species, K. glatica, has purplish flowers, and 

 a fourth, growing in Virginia, a rosy-tinted corolla. 

 The only sorts desirable for cultivation are the broad- 

 leaved and the narrow-leaved ; and they need only to 

 be heralded on coming from Europe or Asia to secure 

 wider recognition of their worth. 



Another strictly American group is the small one 

 called Calycanthus, chiefly known through a favorite 

 species, the sweet-scented shrub, C. floridus, that has 

 become popular in Europe. Flower, foliage, and bark 

 are aromatic, the blossom when warmed emitting a 

 fragrance quite like that of the strawberry. Being pur- 

 plish and not clustered, the flower is not a conspicu- 

 ous ornament, but its aroma and the thickly foliaged, 

 shapely bush have won a wide recognition at home and 

 abroad. A less known species, C. occidentalis, in Cali- 

 fornia, is of greater size, with ampler leaves and dark 

 crimson flowers three inches in diameter. 



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