394 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Sp. 2. The Narrow-leaved Kalmia. K. an gusli 'folia. L. 



Figured in Catesby's Carolina, I, Plate 117, where it is called Chamaedaphne 

 sempervirens. Audubon's Birds, II, Plate 195. 



A low, evergreen shrub, usually half a foot or a foot high, 

 rarely two feet, forming often small tufts or patches in low 

 grounds. The stem is ascending, covered with a brown bark, 

 shining through the thin, membranaceous silvery epidermis, 

 in recent shoots of a light reddish green. Branches often in 

 threes. Leaves in whorls of three, entire, lance-shaped, revo- 

 lute on the margin, with the mid-rib very prominent beneath, 

 shining green above, paler and often rusty beneath, of a soft, 

 leathery texture, those of the previous year browner and harder. 

 Flowers in corymbs, in from three to twelve whorls of three, 

 in the axils of the persistent last year's leaves, and surmounted 

 by the new leaves. In each axil is a panicle consisting of about 

 three imperfect whorls of three flowers. At the base of each 

 flower-stem is a small linear bract, and two smaller ones on the 

 sides. The flowers are very beautiful, of a deep rose-red. 



From its supposed poisonous effect upon lambs, this plant is 

 often called lamb-kill or sheep-kill. It is found from Hudson's 

 Bay to Georgia. 



There are many slight varieties of this plant, some of them 

 remarkable for leaves glaucous beneath and somewhat so above. 



Sp. 3. The Glaucous Kalmia. K. glauca. Aiton. 



Figured in Audubon's Birds, II, Plate 193. 



An almost aquatic plant, with a long, straggling stem, with a 

 greenish brown, smooth bark, and slender, two-edged, opposite 

 branches, or three-edged in whorls of three. The leaves are 

 opposite, or in threes, nearly sessile, linear-lance-shaped, entire, 

 obtuse or pointed, wedge-shaped at base, revolute at the edge, 

 of a brilliant dark green above, whitish or glaucous beneath. 

 Flowers in terminal corymbs, made of alternately opposite pairs, 

 or in threes, from the axil of a small leaf or bract, with two 

 lateral scales. Footstalks thread-like, three fourths of an inch 

 long. Calyx persistent, with five long, obtuse, brown segments. 



