F all the flowering shrubs that nature has 
so bountifully distributed through our 
woods, and over our hillsides, none have 
more charm than our Mountain Laurel 
and Rhododendron, or Rose Bay, tech¬ 
nically known as Kalmia latifolia and Rhododendron 
maximum , and none are more exquisitely beautiful. 
Almost the only evergreen flowering plants that we 
possess, we find them caring for the same condition 
of life — cool slopes of hill and mountain, shadows of 
hemlocks and pine, borders of brooks, and steep sides 
of ravines are the favorite places in which they love 
to dwell, and in such places in early summer one 
finds a veritable fairyland. 
I he rich green foliage of the Laurel seems all the 
richer from the contrast of the pink and white of its 
delicately wrought flowers. 
The more vigorous Rhododendron, with its broad 
bronzy green leaves, makes both canopy and back¬ 
ground for its neighbor, until its last flower has faded, 
when it bursts into its own supreme glory of bloom, 
and for days following splendidly upholds its large 
bunches of pale pink flowers, over which a light veil 
of lavender ever seems to float. 
It is no wonder that these plants found favor with 
plant-lovers over the sea. There is hardly an English 
estate to-day that has not, somewhere within its bor¬ 
ders, along the edge of its woodland, or bordering 
the edge of its paths, at least one bold and splendid 
group of Rhododendron maximum; and the Kalmia is 
so highly prized and admired that the papers an¬ 
nounce the approach of its flowering season, and the 
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