XV 

 THE KALMIAS 



Kalmia angustifolia . . . Sheep Laurel, or Stagger-bush 



latifolia .... Mountain Laurel, or Calico Bush 



glauca .... The Pale Laurel 



hirsuta .... The Hairy Laurel 



Kalmias are all purely North American 

 shrubs. Indeed, it has been seriously sug- 

 gested that a Kalmia should be adopted as the 

 national flower of the United States, this claim being 

 based on the three facts that it is inherently American 

 and widespread, that it is distinctly beautiful, and that 

 its very name is a memorial to one of the first botan- 

 ists who studied the American flora. Peter Kalm was 

 a Swedish botanist who, at Linnaeus's suggestion, was 

 sent by the Academy of Sciences at Abo in Sweden to 

 make a botanical survey of the New World. At that time 

 (circa 1748) the American flora was a region largely 

 unexplored, but European plant collectors were begin- 

 ning to strain eager eyes towards its treasures, and 

 the eighteenth century is chiefly remarkable from the 

 botanical point of view for the great numbers of new 

 species that passed over from the New World into the 

 Old. Peter Kalm, a pioneer in this exploration, botanised 



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