ERICACEAE KALMIA LAUREL 669 



Distribution. In wooded districts along streams in California extending to 

 the mountains east of San Diego and common northward. 



Poisonous properties. The leaves of the species have been analyzed chem- 

 ically and have been found to contain a poisonous substance, said in California 

 to be poisonous to stock. Certain species of Azalea contain the glucoside ericolin 



Kalmia, L. 



Erect shrubs with entire evergreen coriaceous leaves ; naked buds ; flowers 

 ; in umbels or corymbs, or solitary, or 2-3 together in the axils ; calyx 5-parted ; 

 ' corolla somewhat wheel-shaped, 5-lobed, with 10 pouches in which 10 anthers 

 are lodged ; filaments long, stamens 10, shorter than the corolla ; anther-sacs 

 opened by large terminal pores ; ovary 5-celled ; ovules numerous ; capsule ob- 

 scurely 5-lobed, 5-celled, many-seeded; seeds small. Species 7, 6 native to North 

 America, 1 in Cuba. 



Kalmia latifolia L. Calico-bush. Mountain-laurel. 



A shrub 4-8 feet high, forming dense thickets, becoming a tree 10-30 feet 

 high in the mountains ; branches stiff ; leaves alternate, bright green on both 

 sides, ovate-lanceolate or oblong petioled; flowers profuse, large, and showy, 

 tip rose-color to nearly white, in terminal corymbs ; capsule depressed, globose, 

 5-lobed, glandular. 



Distribution. Rocky hills, damp soil. Canada to Maine and the Allegheny 

 Mountains, through West Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 



Poisonous properties. This plant has long been known as poisonous, and 

 is very much dreaded in the Alleghany Mountains. The substance andromedo- 

 toxin C 31 H gi O 10 , referred to elsewhere, has been found in all parts of the 

 plant. Prof. Chesnut, in reference to the plants says : 



Scores of cattle and sheep are poisoned annually by eating the shrub. Access to it is 

 generally obtained by breaking away from inclosures, or through neglect or accident when 

 cattle or sheep are being driven past laurel thickets to upland pastures in early spring. 

 Laurel leaves (commonly used for decorative purposes in winter), or the flowering branches, 

 are often carelessly thrown into inclosures where animals are kept. The older cattle are 

 not so frequently killed by it, but they are by no means immune. Horses and even goats 

 have died from eating the leaves and in May, 1895, a monkey was killed at the National 

 Zoological Park, at Washington, D. C., by eating a few flowers and leaves offered to it 

 by a visitor. Deer and grouse are said to be immune, although it is claimed that their 

 flesh, especially that of the ruffed grouse, is poisonous when they have fed upon it. It 

 is stated that chickens have been poisoned by eating the vomited matter from poisoned 

 animals. Experiments show, however, that they are able to withstand considerable quantities 

 of the pure poison when it is fed to them. In these experiments the chickens were killed 

 with chloroform after dosing for a few days. The entrails were then cast aside, and the 

 well-boiled meat was fed to cats with nearly fatal results. The honey derived from the 

 nectar of the flower appears to be poisonous under some conditions. Cases of human 

 poisoning occur indirectly in the ways indicated above; directly by overdoses or improper 

 use in domestic medicine, probably by the secret and criminal use of the leaves to increase 

 the intoxicating effects of liquors, and, in children, by their eating the young shoots by 

 mistake for the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). 



Dr. Johnson refers to the poisonous properties of the plant as follows : 



"The leaves of the plant as also those of Kalmia angustifolia (Sheep- Laurel, Lamb-kill) 

 are said to be poisonous to sheep and calves; and cases are reported of men being poisoned by 

 eating the flesh of partridges which had fed upon the buds and berries. On the other hand, 

 Wilson, the ornithologist, ate freely of the flesh of such birds without any ill effect whatever; 

 and deer feed upon the leaves in winter, not only without ill effect upon themselves, but also 

 without rendering their flesh unwholesome to man. And yet the common opinion is that leaves 

 are very poisonous. The writer himself was cautioned by an old Massachusetts farmer against 



