112 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



Mountain Laurel — Kalmia latifolia 

 May-June 



It was once supposed that the "beauty of the 

 flowers was their sole excuse for being," and cer- 

 tainly the laurel has this excuse in full measure, 

 for without doubt it is one of America's loveliest 

 of native flowers. But we know too much about 

 the ways of the flowers to suppose that the beauty 

 of this one alone has helped it to survive long ages 

 of competition, and when it blooms we straightway 

 pry into its waxen chalice, and seek to discover the 

 secret of its fair victory. 



Like the rhododendron and the Andromeda, its 

 anthers are twin meal-bags full of pollen, mounted 

 upon long, spring-like filaments forming veritable 

 V,:' catapults. Each corolla is 



provided with a ring of 

 twelve small pockets, which 

 gently hold the anthers and 

 keep the filaments curved 

 back in a state of tension, 

 all round the central pistil. 

 Thus the flower blooms, 

 and thus it will remain un- 

 less some evening a night- 

 moth, attracted by the white 

 MOUNTAIN LAUREL blossoms and by their fra- 



