The cup within, like some fair breast
Where holy thoughts can surely rest.
How worthy of its meek renown!
Delightful gem for beauty’s crown.
O’er it with joy can poet brood;
It breathes of God in solitude.
—George Bancroft Griffith.
THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL.
(Kalmia latifolia.)
About the middle of the eighteenth century an enthusiastic botanist and collector, Peter Kalm, gathered specimens in America of a beautiful plant which he carried back to the gardens of Europe and also to his preceptor, the naturalist Linnaeus. In the year 1753 Linnaeus named the plant, honoring his pupil by giving to the plant the generic name Kalmia. He also gave it the specific name latifolia, referring to its broad leaves.
The genus Kalmia includes six known species, five of which are natives of eastern North America and one a native of Cuba. They are all beautiful shrubs, varying in height from a few inches to several feet.