Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL; SPOON-WOOD (Kalmia 



latifolia) is one of the most popular of our beautiful 

 flowering shrubs. In the North it grows from 3 to 

 8 feet in height, but in the Southern States it often 

 attains heights of 20 to 30 feet. Its evergreen leaves 

 lend themselves very readily to decorative effects and 

 are used in large quantities for wreaths, so many are 

 used, in fact, that Laurel is becoming scarce near 

 the larger cities of New England. Laurel often grows 

 in dense thickets, so dense, in fact, that it is some- 

 times impossible to force a way through them. 



The leaves are dark glossy green, pointed at each 

 end and oblong in shape; they are arranged alter- 

 nately along the branches and in dense terminal clus- 

 ters. The flowers are very peculiar in their construc- 

 tion, the corolla being deep saucer or bowl-shaped, 

 with five short, broad lobes; on the outside, around 

 the bottom edge of the "bowl," are ten small humps, 

 that inside the corolla form little pockets to receive 

 the anthers of the slender white stamens, curving 

 from the center of the blossom like the spokes of a 

 wheel. 



Both moths and bees visit these flowers in quest 

 of the little supply of nectar that is secreted about 

 the base of the greenish pistil. In order to get at 

 it they alight right in the center of the flower, and 

 pollen they may have brought from previous blos- 

 soms visited, is quickly entangled on the sticky stig- 

 ma. As they successively insert their proboscis be- 

 tween the curved stamens, these become loosened 

 from their little pockets and spring upwards, covering 

 the under side of the visitor with a fresh supply of 

 pollen to carry to another blossom. The flower stems 

 are sticky so that only winged insects can get to 

 the interior. Laurel is common from N. B. to Ont. 

 and southwards. 



