HEATH FAMILY 



They remain green and fall during the second summer. Petioles 

 short, stout, slightly flattened. 



Flowers. Flowers appear in May or June from buds which are 

 formed in autumn in the axils of the upper leaves in the form of 

 slender cones of downy green scales. These buds usually develop 

 two or more lateral branches, the whole forming a compound many- 

 flowered corymb four or five inches in diameter and overlapped at 

 the flowering time by the leafy branches of the year. Pedicels are 

 red or green, hairy or scurfy and furnished with two bracts at base 

 and developed from the axils of itfl^'bracts. 



Calyx. Five-parted ; lobes imbricate in bud, narrow, acute, cov- 

 ered with glutinous hairs. Disk prominent, ten-lobed. 



Corolla. Saucer-shaped, rose colored, white, or pink. Tube short 

 with ten tiny sacs just below the five-parted limb ; lobes ovate, acute, 

 imbricate in bud. The border is marked on the inner surface with 

 a waving rosy line and is slightly purple above the sac. The buds 

 are ten-ribbed from the sacs to the acute apex of the bud. 



Stamens. Ten, hypogynous, shorter than the corolla, at first held 

 in the sacs of the corolla ; filaments thread-like ; anthers oblong, 

 adnate, two-celled ; cells opening by a short longitudinal pore. 



Pistil. Ovary superior, five-celled ; style thread-like, exserted ; 

 stigma capitate ; ovules many in each cell. 



Fruit. Woody capsule, many seeded, depressed - globular, 

 slightly five-lobed, five-celled, five-valved. Crowned with the per- 

 sistent style, surrounded at base by the persistent calyx, covered 

 with viscid hairs. Seeds oblong. 



The blossoms of the Moun- 

 tain Laurel are equipped with 

 a most evident device to se- 

 cure cross-fertilization. Nat- 

 ure has many such arrange- 

 ments, but it is not often that 

 they are so openly displayed. 

 In this case, however, he who 

 runs may read. Each flower 

 has ten stamens and each co- 

 rolla is provided with ten lit- 

 tle pockets. When the flower 

 opens each stamen is found 

 bent back with its anther 

 thrust into one of these tiny cavities. In the centre of the 

 flower lies the nectar, and when the bee comes to get it, he 



188 



Flower Cluster of Mountain Laurel, Kalmia 

 latifolia. 



