PIN* 



(PI. XCIV 



Poly gala poly gama. Milkwort Family. 



Stems. Very leafy; six to nine inches high ; with cleistogamous flowers 

 on underground runners. Leaves, Lance-shaped "or oblong. Flowers. 

 Purple-pink ; loosely clustered in a terminal raceme. Keel of Corolla. 

 Crested. Stamens, Eight. Pistil. One. 



Like its more attractive sister, the fringed polygala, this little 

 plant hides its most useful, albeit unattractive, blossoms in the 

 ground, where they can fulfil their destiny of perpetuating the 

 species without danger of molestation by thievish insects or any 

 of the distractions incidental to a more worldly career. Ex 

 actly what purpose the little above-ground flowers, which appear 

 so plentifully in sandy soil in July, are intended to serve, it is 

 difficult to understand. 



SHEEP LAUREL. LAMBKILU 



Kalmia angustifolia. Heath Family. 



A shrub from one to three feet high. Leaves. Narrowly oblong; light 

 green. Flowers. Deep pink; in lateral clusters. Calyx. Five-parted. 

 Corolla. Five-lobed ; between wheel and bell-shaped ; with stamens caught 

 in its depressions as in the mountain laurel. Stamens. Ten. Pistil. 

 One. 



This low shrub grows abundantly with the mountain laurel., 

 bearing smaller deep pink flowers at the same season, and nar- 

 rower, paler leaves. It is said to be the most poisonous of the 

 genus, and to be especially deadly to sheep, while deer are sup- 

 posed to feed upon its leaves with impunity. 



The flower is one of Thoreau's favorites. In his journal, 

 June 13, 1852, he writes: " Lambkill is out. I remember with 

 what delight I used to discover this flower in dewy mornings. 

 All things in this world must be seen with the morning dew 

 on them, must be seen with youthful, early opened, hopeful 



eyes." 



And two years later, oddly enough on the same day of the 



212 



