THE HEATH FAMH^Y. 389 



K. latifbUa, mountain laurel, calico bush, spoonwort or ivy — the latter 

 name being in most common use by the mountain people — our most general 

 and well-known species of laurel, grows in the south through sandy or 

 rocky soil. . During the winter low bushes of it often irregular and scraggly 

 in outline thrust themselves to the very edges of wooded roadsides, when 

 their elliptical, bright green leaves are perhaps the only bits of colour in 

 sight, unless perhaps a low rosette of the great mullein's leaves are near by. 



K. angustifblia, lambkill, wicky or sheep-laurel, a charming one of the 

 laurels, is known by its oblong, blunt leaves and deep crimson, almost 

 purplish flowers which are rather small and borne usually in great numbers. 

 It spreads itself over barren hillsides as well as inhabits swamps and moist 

 places, being in early June a truly enchanting sight. The laurels have a 

 rather bad reputation in one way, especially lambkill, as they are renowned 

 for being poisonous to stock that eat of their young growth in early spring. 

 Water distilled from the leaves contains deadly properties ; even honey made 

 from the flowers according to some writers should be most assiduously 

 avoided. The Indians, it is said, knew of this poisonous element in them 

 and held it in reserve for committing suicide or wreaking vengeance on their 

 enemies. 



CATESBY'5 LEUCOTHOE. DOG HOBBLE. {Plate CXX VII) 

 Leucdthoe CatesbccL 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



lU-atk. Creamy ivhite. Fragrant. Georgia to Virginia. Afril-Juue. 



Flowers: growing thickly in upright or slightly ])en(lulous, axillary racemes and 

 bracted at the bases of their pedicels. Calyx : five divided. Corolla : cylindric, 

 with five points and contracted at the throat. Stamens: ten. Pistil: one. 

 Capsule: depressed-globose, five-lobed and five-valved containing numerous, 

 minute seeds. Leaves: ovate-lanceolate; petioled; tapering towards the ape.x; 

 finely serrate and bristle-tipped nearly all around; bright green and lustrous; 

 lighter below; evergreen. A shrub, three to six feet high with highly coloured, 

 glabrous twigs. 



" Many a poor dog has heard his bones crackle when caught in the 

 meshes of this bush," said an old hunter, and thus he implied an oft recur- 

 ring tragedy. For the shrub's interwoven, thick growth makes it at times 

 impossible for a dog to pass through, while the bear, of which he is on the 

 track, seeing this, turns about and carries the war into the enemies' camp. 

 With his stronger force he can naturally grapple with the plant better than 

 the dog. The mountain people also call it "poison hemlock " knowing that 

 it is poisonous to both cattle and sheep, although in general the instinct of 

 these creatures teaches them to leave it alone. Rut when they have been 

 tied up for some time they become reckless of such warnings and nibble at 



