46 



A PLEA FOR HARDY PLANTS 



favorite shrub, Kahnia latifoUa, which is known in Pennsylvania, where it is 

 very common in the woods, as the small-leaved mountain laurel. It is 

 greatly admired as a wild flower, and an occasional unsuccessful attempt is 

 made to transplant it from the woods ; but nurserymen have made no 

 attempt to introduce it into general culture, and it is somewhat curious 

 that it is necessary to send to England to get fine specimens of this dis- 

 tinctively American plant. Excepting odor, it has every good quality that 

 a shrub can have — evergreen foliage and good habit, great quantity of 

 durable bloom, extreme daintiness and beauty of individual flowers, and 

 usefulness as cut-flowers. If the flowers are cut just as the buds are about 

 to open, and placed in water, they will last for two weeks in the house, and 

 if arranged with taste nothing is more decorative. 



In one of his books, Donald G. Mitchell suggests that the kalmia 

 would probably make an excellent hedge. I have never seen it tried, but I 

 am confident that it would — perhaps as fine as the holly hedges In England, 



HEMLOCK HEDGE 



