rich. Laurel 



32 

 MOUNTAIN LAUREL. 



Some of our most famous paint- 

 ings have been of homely and com- 

 monplace scenes ; some of our most 

 beautiful birds are reckoned as 

 abundant ; and it is the same with our 

 wild flowers, although we are apt to 

 regard most highly those species 

 that are the most difficult to obtain. 

 When I wish to see the most glorious 

 floral panorama that Nature pro- 

 duces. I visit Laurel or Spoonwood 

 swamps during the latter part of 

 May. Great masses of beautiful pink 

 and white blossoms top the hand- 

 some, dark-leaved shrubs. In fav- 

 orable places where the soil is very 

 rows even more luxuriantly on wooded hill- 

 sides than in the more extensive swampy tracts. The stiff, 

 oval, deep green leaves are evergreen and very decorative, 

 so much so that great quantities of them are gathered for 

 the making of wreaths, a practice that is gradually forcing 

 one to make longer and longer journej'S from the large 

 cities if he wishes to see Mountain Laurel in its haunts. 



Each individual flower is very interesting in form and 

 structure. The buds are always pink and the opened flow- 

 ers frequently are, the degree of pinkness depending upon 

 the nature of the ground and the amount of light that is 

 received by them. The corolla is saucer-shaped, with five 

 points. A single short pistil rises in the center of the corol- 

 la, surrounded by ten stamens which are bent outward so 

 that their tips are caught in little pockets provided for 

 them; these little pockets also contain the fine pollen grains. 

 If we touch one of the stamens on a mature flower, ever so 

 lightly, snap, — it is released from its pocket and springs 

 forward, throwing out its little load of pollen. Each blos- 

 som then, has ten spring guns all set and ready to be dis- 

 charged as soon as a visiting bee touches them. As the 

 winged creature visits the next flower some of the pollen 

 that is dusted on the under surface of his body touches 

 the stigma of the pistil even before his feet have disturbed 

 its stamens enough to discharge them. 



