The Heaths : the Rhododendron and the Mountain Laurel 



2. Genus KALMIA, Linn. 



Mountain Laurel (Kalmta laiijolia, 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 large terminal compound corymbs, on viscid peduncles; perfect 

 in June; calyx 5-parted, on lo-lobed disc; corolla, saucer shaped, 

 rosy or white with purple markings in short tube, 10 tiny pouches 

 below 5-parted border; stamens 10, with anthers in pouches, and 

 filaments bent over until time to discharge pollen, when they 

 straighten; pistil i, with head on long style; ovary 5-celled. 

 Fruit a globular, woody, 5-celled, many-seeded capsule. Preferred 

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

 Sheltered situations in the North. Distribution, Nova Scotia to 

 Lake Erie (north shore); southward through New England and 

 New York, and along Alleghanies to northern Georgia. Uses: 

 Hardy ornamental evergreen. Foliage used for winter decora- 

 tion of houses and churches, and to trim fruit stands in city 

 markets. 



Along with the rhododendrons in June and July the mountain 

 laurel hides its shining evergreen leaves with flower clusters larger 

 than any the rhododendron bears. At least it seems so, for the 

 clusters lie close, cheek by cheek, quite subordinating the foliage, 

 making often a great mass a foot across, upon a single slender 

 branch. 



Smaller than the rhododendron in blooms, the laurel shows 

 more exquisite colouring, and more interesting and beautiful 

 forms from bud to seed. First, the buds, little fluted cones of 

 vivid pink, make with the green of the new leaves one of the 

 finest colour combinations to be found in any shrub. The largest 

 ones open first, spreading into wide, 5-lobed corollas with ten 

 pockets in a circle around the base of each. Ten stamens stand 

 about the free central pistil, and the anther of each is hid in a 

 pocket, its filament bent back. This is a curious contrivance, i 



420 v./ 



