THE MADRONA 121 



points its superior in beauty. In June and July the pol- 

 ished evergreen foliage of the kalmia bushes is almost over- 

 whelmed by the masses of its exquisite pink blossoms, be- 

 side which the bloom of rhododendrons looks coarse and 

 crude in coloring. Coral-red fluted buds with pointed 

 tips show the richest color, making with the yellow-green 

 of the new leaves one of the most exquisite color combina- 

 tions in any spring shrubbery. The largest buds open 

 first, spreading into wide five-lobed corollas, with two 

 pockets in the base of each forming a circle of ten pockets. 

 Ten stamens stand about the free central pistil, and the 

 anther of each is hid in a pocket of the corolla — the slender 

 filament bent backward. This is a curious contrivance for 

 insuring cross-fertilization through the help of the bees. 

 (See ^''Flowers Worth Knowing.'*^) 



Linnaeus commemorated in the name of this genus the 

 devoted and arduous labors of Peter Kalm, the Swedish 

 botanist, who sent back to his master at the university of 

 Upsala specimens of the wonderful and varied flora found 

 in his travels in eastern North America. Most of the 

 names accredited to Linnaeus were given to plants he 

 never saw except as dried herbarium specimens from the 

 New World. 



THE INIADRONA 



The madroiia (Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh.), another mem- 

 ber of the Heath family, is one of the superbly beautiful 

 trees in the forests that stretch from British Columbia 

 soutliward into California. South of the bay of San 

 Francisco and on the dry eajstern slopes of California 

 mountains it is stunted to a shrub, but on the high, well- 



