176 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



ful shrubs, and the winds that fan the brows, come 

 laden with odors which they have gathered from beds 

 of roses, sweetbriers, and fragrant viburnums. Gold- 

 finches and humming-birds peep down upon us, as they 

 are flitting among the green branches of the trees, and 

 gilded butterflies settle upon the flowers at our feet, and 

 charm our eyes by the union of life and" beauty. In 

 the pastures, that are sparkling with an abundant pro- 

 ^duce of wild fruits, the red lilies and downy spiraea 

 appear in glowing profusion ; and young children who 

 go out into the fields to gather these simple luxuries, 

 after having filled their baskets with fruit, crown their 

 arms with bouquets of lilies, laurels, and honeysuckles, 

 rejoicing over their bounty, during the happiest, inas- 

 much as it is the most simple and natural period of their 

 lives. 



The glory of our woods and pastures, at this season, 

 is the mountain-laurel, (kalmia latifolia,) one of the 

 most magnificent flowering shrubs of any climate. It 

 is preceded by a more humble plant of the same tribe, 

 — the low laurel, or lambkill, bearing whorls of bright 

 crimson flowers, bound like a wreath around the stem, 

 beneath a tuft of green leaves that terminate the branch. 

 It grows in open pastures, and in favorable situations 

 attains an almost unrivalled beauty. The flowers of 

 the mountain-laurel are equally beautiful at a distance, 

 and upon minute examination, combining, in the 

 highest degree, those qualities so seldom united, splen- 

 dor and delicacy. These brilliant flowers young people 

 have always delighted to blend with trailing evergreens, 

 in the decoration of halls for their July festivities, and 

 being truly an American species, they deserve more 

 than any other plant to represent in America, the cele- 

 brated bay-laurel of the Romans. 



