128 MISC. PUBLICATION 101, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
moner of the two western species, ranges from Alaska to western 
Montana, Oregon, and northern California. Sheep will not touch 
this plant unless hungry; Lenzie states if they eat it to any con- 
siderable degree from starvation sickness ensues. 
WINTERGREENS AND SALAL (GAULTHERIA SPP.) 
The genus Gaultheria is a very large one, of world-wide distribu- 
tion, but mostly confined to the Andean cordilleras of South America. 
Bush wintergreen (G. ovatifolia) and western wintergreen (G. 
humifusa, syn. G. myrsinites) resemble the wintergreen (G. pro- 
cumbens) of northern and eastern North America, from which the 
commercial oil of wintergreen is distilled; and it is not unlikely that 
the western species might also yield this valuable oil. The scarlet 
fruits of these three native wintergreen species are edible, with an 
agreeable spicy wintergreen flavor, and form a not unimportant part 
a the diet of birds (such as grouse and quail), deer, and other wild 
ife. 
Salal (G. shallon) (fig. 37) is a shrub 1 to 6 feet tall, with stout 
and spreading branches. The thick evergreen leaves are usually 
glossy on the upper surface. Salal occurs from Alaska to California 
(west of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada), and is a very common 
and characteristic forest-floor species, associated with Oregon holly- 
grape, bracken, “ huckleberries,’” and Scouler willow in dry sterile 
soils, and found also in the more moist and fertile soils of Douglas fir 
and Sitka spruce forests. The herbage is not palatable to livestock, 
but the fruit is edible, with a spicy aromatic flavor, and the species 
was an important food plant among the aborigines of the Northwest. 
KALMIAS (KALMIA SPP.) 
Kalmia is a North American genus of six species, of which two are 
native to the West. Kalmias are frequently called laurels, but 
belong to a different family than the true laurels (Zawrus spp.). 
Alpine kalmia (IC. microphylla, syns. K. polifolia microphylla and 
K. glauca microphylla), often called dwarf or alpine bog kalmia, is 
a low bush, usually 4 to 12 inches high, inhabiting celd, subalpine 
bogs from Alaska to Colorado and California. (Fig. 38.) Nor- 
mally livestock de not touch this species, but instances are reported 
of sickness or even loss, especially among lambs admitted to high 
range too early in the spring. Fleming (35) has artificially fed this 
plant to calves and sheep, causing poisoning in most cases, and kill- 
ing one sheep that was fed 8 ounces. Fleming’s results have led him 
to believe that the species varies materially in toxicity in different 
environments and that there is considerable seasonal change in the 
poison present. This species appears to be the form figured and de- 
scribed by Glover and Robbins (44, p. 56-57) under the name “Amer- 
ican or swamp laurel (Halmia polifolia).” ‘These authors state 
that Colorado stockmen generally know very little of swamp laurel 
as a poisonous plant, probably because it grows only on the very 
high ranges, where relatively few animals graze. It is much dreaded 
in some sections, however. 
