Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



berries are to some extent poisonous, causing vertigo 

 and dimness of sight, and it is said that the Indians 

 used to make a decoction from them when they wished 

 to destroy themselves. During a certain epidemic 

 in Philadelphia an edict was issued by the mayor to 

 forbid persons to eat any birds, because it was found 

 they were feeding upon Kalmia berries. 



The Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia] is some- 

 times known as " Lamb-kill " and " Stagger-bush," 

 from the same belief in its possession of poisonous 

 qualities. It is a smaller shrub than the previous one, 

 not exceeding a couple of feet in height, with narrower 

 leaves. Peter Kalm described the flower as a " real 

 ornament to the wood ; they grow in bunches like 

 crowns, and are of a fine lively purple colour." They 

 appear about the end of May. A variety known as 

 "the Dwarf" Kalmia nana is a dainty little shrub 

 about a foot high. 



Kalmia glauca or (K. polifolia), the " Pale Laurel," 

 flowers a little earlier than the Sheep Laurel. Its 

 evergreen foliage is a bluish-green above, almost white 

 beneath. The flowers are the usual beautiful rose 

 colour, and the whole shrub hardy and most attractive 

 at the end of April and throughout May. 



Kalmia hirsuta has hairy leaves and stems, and 

 flowers late in the summer, about August. The last 



two are very much smaller shrubs than K. latifolia. 



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