HEATH FAMILY. Ericacem. 



the appearance of a true fruit. 2-5 inches high. From 



Me., south, and west to Mich. The same aromatic 



essential oil exists in sweet birch as in this wintergreen. 



A stout and tall shrub in its south- 

 Mountain e^ £ • ■ ill 

 Laurel ^^^^ range, often formmg impenetrable 



Kalmia thickets. The stem and branches are ir- 



latifolia regular and angular in growth : the leaves 



White, pinkish ^j.g evergreen, shinj' dark green, elliptical, 

 ^ firm, and toothless. The 3'oung leaves are 



a yellower green. The beautiful flowers are borne in 

 large, dome-shaped clusters ; they are exceedingly con- 

 ventional and ornamental in form, bowl-shaped with 

 five lobes, waxy white, pinkish-tinged in maturity, and 

 pure pink in the corrugated, cone-shaped bud. There 

 are ten depressions or pockets in the sides of the corolla 

 in which the tips of the anthers are securely held, their 

 filaments forming a series of arching spokes from the 

 centre of the flower which is stained with a tiny crimson 

 star; the style is prominent and pale green. The insect 

 visitor, commonly a moth, often a bee, struggling and 

 pushing its waj^ to the heart of the flower, releases the 

 stamens and these spring backward, showering pollen 

 over the fuzzy bodj^ of the intruder. The pollen of 

 Kalmia is more or less connected by webby threads, and 

 its adhesive character is peculiarly adapted to the i)ur- 

 pose of cross-fertilization ; the next blossom visited by 

 the insect probably has a receptive stigma about which 

 the pollen strings become quickly entangled. The 

 flower-stalks are liairy-stickj^ thus preventing pilferers, 

 such as ants, who would be useless as fertilizing agents, 

 from entering the blossoms. The seed-capsule is some- 

 what globular but five-lobed, and at first assumes a dull 

 red hue, B-6 feet liigh, and in its southern range often 

 attaining a height of 20-35 feet. In woodlands, prefer- 

 ring sand}' soil or rocky slopes, from Me,, south, and 

 west to Tenn. and Ohio. Named for Peter Kalm, a 

 German botanist, who visited this country in the middle 

 of the eighteenth century. 



332 



