MOUNTAIN LAUREL (Kalmia latifolia, Linn.). Evergreen 

 shrub or tree, becoming 30 feet high, with dense, round head 

 and crooked branches. Bark dark brown with tinge of red, 

 scaly; branches red or yellow, smooth. Wood reddish brown, 

 heavy, fine-grained. Buds large, scaly, sub-terminal ones 

 contain flowers; leaf buds small, naked, axillary. Leaves 

 alternate or irregularly whorled, oblong, tapering at both ends, 

 leathery, stiff, dark green and shining above, yellow-green 

 below; 3 to 4 inches long, on short petioles; evergreen, falling 

 during second summer. Flowers in June; large terminal com- 

 pound corymbs, on viscid peduncles; perfect; calyx 5-parted, 

 on 10-lobed disc; corolla, saucer-shaped, rosy or white purple 

 markings in short tube, 10 tiny pouches below 5-parted with 

 border; stamens 10, with anthers in pouches, and filaments 

 bent over until time to discharge pollen, when they straighten; 

 pistil 1, with head on long style; ovary 5-celled. Fruit a 

 globular, woody, 5-ce'lled, many-seeded capsule. Preferred 

 habitat, cool, moist, well-drained soil that contains no lime. 

 Sheltered situations in the North. Dist.: Nova Scotia to 

 Lake Erie (north shore); southward through New England 

 and New York and along Alleghenies to northern Georgia. 



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