No. 14.] FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS. 3O9 



KALMIA L. American Laurel. 



Kalmia latifolia L. (broad-leaved). 



Mountain Laurel. Calico Bush. Spoon-wood. 



Frequent, local or common. Woods and thickets. June. 



Often planted for ornament. All parts of the plant are 

 poisonous except the wood. Many instances of fatal poison- 

 ing of stock from eating this and allied plants have been 

 reported. Sheep and young cattle are most susceptible, but 

 horses and even goats have been known to die from the 

 effects of it. Cases of human poisoning are quite rare. The 

 leaves are employed medicinally. 



The following act of the General Assembly was approved 

 and became a law April 17, 1907: — "The Mountain Laurel, 

 Kalmia latifolia, is hereby made, constituted, and declared to 

 be the State Flower of the State of Connecticut." 



Kalmia angustifolia L. (narrow-leaved). 

 Sheep Laurel. Lambkill. Wicky. 



Bogs, wet ground or open pastures. Local in Fairfield 

 County ; frequent or common elsewhere. June — July. 



Its medicinal and poisonous properties are as in Kalmia 

 latifolia. 



Kalmia polifolia Wang, (gray-leaved). 

 Kalmia glauca Ait. 

 Pale or Swamp Laurel. 



Rare. Sphagnum bogs: Burlington (J. N. Bishop), Nor- 

 folk (J. H. Barbour), Litchfield (Bissell), Woodbury (Har- 

 ger), Ridgefield (S. B. Mead), Kent (C. K. Averill), Salis- 

 bury (Mrs. C. S. Phelps). May— June. 



LEUCOTHOe D. Don. Fetter Bush. 



Leucothoe racemosa (L.) Gray (racemose). 

 Leucothoe. 



Rare or local. Moist woods or in swamps : Groton, Water- 

 ford, Ledyard and East Haddam (Graves), Haddam and 

 Durham (Dr. E. J. Thompson), Middlefield (C. S. Phelps), 

 East Hartford (A. W. Driggs), Stratford (Fames), Hunting- 

 ton (Harger). May — June. 



