86 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



The name, Ledum, is the ancient Latin for this 

 genus. Glandulosum, one can see, is a description 

 of the leaf's activity. If you crush a leaf, the air is 

 instantly aromatic with turpentine; and, if you taste 



it, the flavor is that of 

 pure turpentine. It is 

 said that the shrub poi- 

 sons sheep, but I have 

 my suspicions that it is 

 one of the few plants 

 they dislike and do not 

 destroy. The common 

 name, Labrador Tea, 

 comes from the Atlan- 

 tic member of the fam- 

 ily, Ledum palustre, 

 whose leaves are used 

 as a beverage. Sir John 

 Franklin and his party, 

 in their Arctic Expedi- 

 tion of 1819-1822, made a tea of the leaves, which 

 they found reviving in the polar cold. They re- 

 ported that it had the taste and fragrance of rhu- 

 barb, so its glands must make a product different 

 from that which our native species manufactures. 



A Sierran plant that seems to be in the process of 

 changing the form of her corolla is the Gentian 

 In joining her five petals together into a funnel, she 



LABRADOR TEA 



