JUNE 9, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
RAL BUSTORY 

The Beautiful Laurels. 
BY CLARENCE M. WEED. 
WitH the possible exception of some of the 
rhododendrons, no American shrub is more beau- 
tiful when in blossom than the mountain laurel, 
which is widely distributed over the eastern re- 
gion of North America, ranging from New 
Brunswick on the north to Florida on the south, 
and extending westward to Ohio and Tennessee. 
It is a favorite plant with every lover of the 
woods who has been so fortunate as to see it in 
blossom, or even to come across the shining green 
decorative leaves at any season of the year. It 
is by no means generally distributed over the 
region indicated, being found especially in hilly 
localities, but often being only local even there. 
It is known to many people who have never seen 
it growing wild, from the fact that it is justly a 
favorite shrub for ornamental planting and also, 
unfortunately, is one of the most commonly used 
forms of greenery for holiday decorations. 
The mountain laurel blossoms in May or June, 
according to the locality and elevation. The 
good-sized flowers are borne in wonderful clus- 
ters, which are sure to attract the attention of all 
beholders. These clusters are grouped at the 
ends of the branches, each consisting of a consid- 
erable number of large flowers, the single blos- 
soms being rendered extremely attractive by the 
broadly salver-shaped united petals. 
The pollen-bearing anthers are caught in curi- 
ous little pockets in these petals in a most inter- 
esting way, being so held on their supports that 
when an insect visits the flower to gather nectar 
these pollen-bearing anthers will be released and 
shower the pollen upon the body of the insect. 
By this somewhat intricate device the plant pro- 
vides for the carrying of the pollen from flower 
to flower and thus brings about cross-fertiliza- 
tion. 
There seems little doubt that this beautiful 
shrub is in danger of extermination in many 
localities on account of its uses for decorative 
purposes. When it blossoms a great many bushes 
are robbed of the flowers for church and home 
decoration, as well as for sale on the city streets, 
while, as already indicated, vast quantities of it 
are gathered and sold during the Christmas holi- 
days. Concerning this latter use of the plant, 
Mr. R. T. Jackson recently wrote: 
“In looking at long festoons of mountain laurel 
it really is saddening to think of the quantity of 
blooms prevented for the ensuing summer and 
the numberless bushes mutilated to supply even 
one large decoration. When the total amount 
used for Christmas greens for a single city like 
Boston is considered, it seems that we must call 
a halt in this wholesale cutting of laurel, or we 
shall have this exquisite plant reduced to relative 
rarity in all readily-available localities. I know 
of two churches that refrained from using laurel 
when their attention was called to the matter, 
and if others would follow suit, the demand there- 
by being greatly reduced, the danger would be 
averted.” 
A much more generally distributed though less 
attractive species of laurel is the sheep laurel or 
lamb-kill, a low-growing shrub that is found from 
the Hudson Bay region south to Georgia. This 
plant seldom reaches a greater height than three 
feet, and bears rather small flowers, which seem 
miniature reproductions of the blossoms of the 
mountain laurel, though the color is a deeper red. 
The structure of the flower is very similar in 
the two species. 
This lamb-kill derives its common name from 
the fact that the foliage is poisonous, and when 
eaten often leads to the death of sheep and lambs. 
It is consequently dreaded in sheep pastures, and, 
in fact, has no such claims for preservation as 
has the mountain laurel. 
There seems to be no doubt that the mountain 
laurel is also poisonous and occasionally leads to 
the death of stock,.so that in regions where do- 
mestic animals graze it may be desirable to re- 
duce or exterminate the laurel, but it is not in 
such regions that the greatest amount of gather- 
ing of the shrubs for decorative purposes is 
likely to take place. 
Both these plants belong to the genus Kalmia, 
the name being given in honor of Peter Kalm, 
who traveled in North America during the middle 
of the eighteenth century: The mountain laurel 
is known technically as Kalmia latifolia, while the 
sheep laurel is K. angustifolia, There are vari- 
ous varieties of each of these species. 

Death of an Old Collector. 
Notice has been received at the American 
Museum of Natural History of the death by the 
accidental discharge of his gun of J. H. Batty, a 
collector for the Museum. 
Many of the older ornithologists of New York 
city will remember Batty thirty-five years or more 
ago, when he was engaged in collecting birds in 
New York, New Jersey and thereabouts. At that 
time he made his New York headquarters at the 
shop of John Wallace, in North William street. 
Previous to this he had gone west one year with 
the Hayden Survey and had made collections of 
birds and mammals. Later, he wrote a book en- 
titled “Taxidermy and Home Decoration,’ which 
had a considerable sale and is still often called 
for. When the craze for feather millinery came 
up Batty became a plume bird hunter and trav- 
eled over the Southern States, Mexico and South 
America. Of late years he has been constantly 
engaged in making natural history collections, 
and for the last three years has been in the em- 
ploy of the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory. 
At the time of his death he was making exten- 
sive collections of Mexican fauna, and had 
worked through Durango, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Chi- 
apas and was about to begin collecting in Guate- 
mala, He was engaged in hunting near a small 

town in the southeastern part of the Province of 
Chiapas, Mexico, when the accident took place 
which caused his death. Mr. Batty was born in 
Springfield, Mass., about sixty years ago, Dur- 
ing the past winter he spent some weeks in this 
city, his headquarters being at the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History. 
The Polar Cub Buster. 
AT the annual meeting of the American Geo- 
graphical Society Mr. W. S. Champ, who was 
one of the Ziegler Polar Expedition party, gave 
this. story of the polar bear Buster, now in the 
National Zoological Park in Washington: 
“To-day there is in your zoological park a 
small bear called Buster, a polar bear. This 
member was captured by the relief ship and was 
presented to the National Zoological Park. I 
want to tell you in a few words the story of his 
capture. To me it appeals strongly, as it oc- 
curred after we had been in the pack about 
twenty days, or about 150 miles into the pack. 
We were enveloped in a very dense fog for three 
days, and when the fog lifted on the skyline we 
noticed a very large bear with a young cub. 
Everybody on board ship was very quiet when 
we went into the pack, though we knew there 
was nothing to fear, and we waited to see what 
these bears would do. As a sportsman, I want 
to say there is no sport in killing a polar bear; 
they come right up to the ship; they do not know 
what a human being is, and as a result of their 
hunger and curiosity they come right up to you; 
this bear had evidently been hunting-for food for 
several days. She encircled the ship entirely and 
gradually worked her way up to the ship. In the 
meantime, the doctor who was on board and one 
of the harpooners and myself went on the ice 
and crawled up toward the bear behind a huge 
cake of ice, and finally dispatched the old bear. 
As a usual thing, when a mother is shot, the cub 
will run away, but in this instance the young 
bear sat over the mother and fought us off. We 
MOUNTAIN LAUREL. 
