56 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
the anther pockets so conspicuous in some of the 
laurel. 
Nothing is more charming than a laurel cup with 
the anthers on its recurved filaments still hidden 
in the little pink pits that indent the inside of the 
corolla in a circle. These curved and captured sta- 
mens, pretty traps to force invading insects to bear 
away pollen on their wings, at the slightest touch 
spring back and curl up at the centre of the flower 
dusting the intruder, and you, passing among the 
laurel, are sure to be dusted with little pellets of 
pollen bombarding you on all sides. And the cups 
themselves! Scalloped on the edges, shaped and 
decorated like tiny afternoon-tea cups, who does not 
know and love them! There is something familiar 
and homelike about laurel, and it is easy to under- 
stand why the people prefer it to the azaleas. Like 
the New Englander they call it "calico-bush," a 
comfortable name suggesting Sunday starch and 
fresh young girls. And here, as in New England, 
the laurel is also known as "ivy," the name laurel 
being here bestowed upon the lordly rhododendron. 
The mountain-laurel and the flame-colored aza- 
leas, though both so abundant, do not interfere with 
each other. There is room on the vast surface of 
the mountains for both. And while a zone of flower- 
ing azaleas belts the mountains, just below it or in- 
terrupting it or claiming intruding ravines is the 
tremendous calm sea of the blossoming laurel. 
As though the marvelous outbreak of the azaleas 
and laurel were not enough to express the joy of life 
