ERICACEAE KALMIA LAMBKILL 671 



Dr. Millspaugh, after digesting the various opinions that have been given 

 regarding the plant, makes this statement : 



From the experience of nearly all persons who have experimented upon themselves with a 

 tincture or decoction of the leaves, it is obvious that the effects produced on cattle after grazing 

 on the leaves, and on persons eating of "poisoned" partridges, are due to the plant itself, not 

 to indigestion or putrefaction. Dr. Bigelow's later observations agree in toto with our prov- 

 ings. He gives the following as its action: "The flesh of the bird impairs the functions of 

 the brain and acts directly as a sedative poison, secondarily affecting the digestive and circulat- 

 ory organs." The symptoms arising in those proving the drug are: Vertigo and headache; 

 almost complete loss of sight; pale, somewhat livid countenance; salivation and difficult de- 

 glutition, thirst, nausea and vomiting, with oppression and pressure in the region of the 

 stomach, difficult respiration with great palpitation, and fluttering of the heart, followed by 

 an irregular, feeble, and slow pulse; weakness, weariness and pains in the limbs; coldness of 

 the surface and great prostration." 



There would seem to be no question then that this plant is poisonous. 

 Kalmia angustifolia; L. Sheep-laurel. Lambkill 



Shrub from 1-3 feet high; leaves usually opposite, or in 3's; pale or whitish 

 beneath, light green above ; acute or narrowly oblong, petioled ; flowers in simple 

 or compound corymbs, purple or crimson; pedicels filiform, recurved in fruit; 

 sepals ovate, acute, capsule depressed, globose. 



Distribution. In moist soil from Eastern Canada to Newfoundland, from 

 Hudson Bay south to Georgia and Michigan. 



Fig. 382. Sheep- 

 laurel (Kalmia angus- 

 tifolia), showing flow- 

 ering branch, one- 

 third natural size. 

 (Chesnut, U. S. Dept. 

 Agr.) 



