78 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



and is thickly branched. Its geograi^hical distribu- 

 tion is from Maine to Minnesota, and soutliward to 

 Georgia. 



Closely related to the shrubs already mentioned, 

 and more beautiful in the larger development of its 

 decorative, frosty, waxy, white flowers is the familiar 

 mountain laurel {Kahnia latifolia). This shrub 

 reaches its finest growth in Pennsylvania and I^ew 

 Jersey, where it forms, on damp ground, dense 

 thickets from four to ten and sometimes thirty feet 

 liigh. In May or June it is in full blossom, and its 

 showy clusters of pink-tinged buds and flowers I 

 regard as the most beautiful of all our early wild 

 flowers. The flowers of the kalmia must be seen 

 under a magnifying glass to be thoroughly appreci- 

 ated, and it is scarcely necessary for me to add that 

 this revelation of its perfect form and beauty will 

 create a lasting impression on one's memory. No 

 other wild flower possesses such exact symmetry, and 

 few, if any such splendid frosty sheen. Kalmia is 

 distributed chiefly along the mountains, from Maine 

 to western Florida. Its lance-ovate leaves differ 

 from the preceding species in being much larger, as 

 well as bright green and smooth on both sides. 



The crowning glory of the Heath family is the 

 rhododendron. The flower which we see in the pub- 

 lic parks in early June is most likely to be a hybrid 



