MOUNTAIN LAUREL, A POISONOUS PLANT. 23 



Notices of this plant occur in the early botanies a and books of 

 American travel. Capt. John Smith describes, in his Generall His- 

 toric of Virginia, 1624, volume I, page 10, a " Kinde of tree like 

 Lowrell," while Hudson in 1609 mentions " rose trees " as occurring 

 on Cape Cod. Catesby describes it under the name Chamaedaphne 

 f oliis tini, floribus bullatis umbellatis, and says distinctly that " When 

 cattle and sheep, by severe winters deprived of better food, feed on 

 the leaves of these plants, a great many of them die annually." h The 

 Delaware Indians are said to have used a decoction of these leaves for 

 suicidal purposes. 



Public attention was especially called to this plant by Peter Kalm, 

 the Swedish botanist, after whom Linnaeus named the genus Kalmia. 

 He described it under the name " spoon tree," because the Indians at 

 that time made spoons of this wood. During his travels in America 

 in 1748 he noted that calves which had eaten of the leaves became 

 "sick, swelled, foamed at the mouth, and could hardly stand," and 

 reported from the observations of the colonists that sheep, especially 

 young ones, died very quickly after eating of these leaves, and that 

 horses, oxen, and cows were made sick but seldom died, as these ani- 

 mals ate only small quantities of the leaves. Deer and partridges 

 were said to feed on the leaves with impunity, and the venison from 

 these deer was harmless to man.* 2 A snake was said to have been 

 killed by dropping a tincture of this plant on its back. e 



John Bartram, an early American botanist, was an ardent lover 

 of, and writer on, mountain laurel, and by him it was brought to 

 Collinson's attention, who then introduced it into England about 

 1734V It would seem more appropriate to have named the genus 

 after him/ as his work antedated that of Kalm. During General 



a Van der Donck, A. Vertoogh van Nieu Nederland, 1650. Translated by 

 H. C. Murphy, 1854, p. 19.— Plukenet, L. Almagest, botan., 1769, p. 106 ; Alma- 

 gest, botan. Mantissa, 1769, p. 49. — Gronovius, J. F., 1. c, p. 160. — Linnaeus, C. 

 Spec. Plant., Ed. Willdenow, vol. 2, p. 600, 1799. Spec. Plant., vol. 1, p. 393, 1753. 

 Amoen. Acad., vol. 3, p. 13, 1764.— Trew, C. J. Plantse Selectse, 1750, pi. 38. 

 Ray, J. Hist. Plant., vol. 2, p. 1927, London, 1688. [Bannister's list of 

 1680.] — Hudson, H. Discourse. Collections of the New York Historical Soci- 

 ety for the Year 1809, vol. 1, p. 121. 



h Catesby, M. Natural History of Carolina, vol. 2, p. 98, 1743. 



c Barton, B. S. Some Account of the Poisonous and Injurious Honey of North 

 America. Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans., 1802, vol. 5, p. 61. 



d Kalm, P., 1. c, pp. 264-265. 



e Barton, B. S. Collections for an Essay towards a Materia Medica of the 

 United States, pt. 2, p. 27, 1804. 



/Alton, W. Hortus Kewensis, vol. 2, p. 64, 1789. — Catesby, M., 1. c, p. 98. 



( J Darlington, W. Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall, pp. 

 130, 141, 228, etc., Philadelphia, 1849.— Bartram, John. Observations, London, 

 1751, pp. 26 and 69. 

 121—n 



