106 IN SILENT WOODS 



Like the Flowering Dogwood, it has a startling 

 way of stretching out a branch of dazzling blos- 

 soms among deep shadows, as if it were a sentient 

 thing, and knew that contrast heightened its tran- 

 scendency. 



Peter Kalm, the Swedish botanist, when he first 

 beheld the New World wilderness couleur de rose 

 with this flower, in reference to the small Laurel, 

 wrote in his journal: "Its leaves stay the winter; 

 the flowers are a real ornament to the woods : 

 they grow in bunches like crowns . . . around 

 the extremity of the stalk, and make it look like 

 a decorated pyramid." Of the Mountain Laurel 

 he adds, "It was likewise in full blossom. It rivals 

 the preceding one in the beauty of its color." 

 We know that he took good report of it to Lin- 

 naeus, his master, who named the genus after him, 

 for our shrub is no kin of the Old World Laurel, 

 the name having been given to it for a likeness 

 in the leaf. 



As the Mountain Laurel drops its flowers and 

 grows ragged for a time, the Wild Rhododendron 

 begins to show much the same delicate tints of 

 rosy color ; but the throat of its wide, five -cleft 

 corolla is often sprinkled with varied golden spots. 

 The Rhododendron's leathery leaf is double as long 



