XX. 10. THE AMERICAN LAUREL. oot 
ternate whorls, and evergreen, except in the species, K. cunedda, 
in which they are deciduous; the flowers in terminal clus- 
ters or compound corymbs; the buds are naked. The flow- 
ers are rose-colored, purplish or white. The calyx is five- 
parted; corolla salver-shaped, with a five-lobed border with 
ten horn-like projections on the lower surface, in the cavities of 
which above, the anthers nestle. Stamens ten, with anthers 
opening by oblique pores. Capsule five-celled, many-seeded, 
the partitions formed by the borders of the valves. Five species 
are known, two of them in Carolina and Florida, the other 
three in New England. Most of the species are considered 
poisonous; one of them, the narrow-leaved, is known to be 
fatal to lambs, and gets its common name thence. Mr. Nuttall 
thinks it not improbable that the deleterious honey sometimes 
complained of, may have received its injurious property from 
the flowers of the Kalmia latifolia. Kalm, who paid much 
attention to the genus, says that the leaves of this species are 
found to be poisonous to calves and lambs, and deleterious to 
cattle, sheep and horses; while they are the food of stags when 
the snow covers the ground and hides other provision from them. 
The occasionally poisonous quality of the flesh of partridges 
has been attributed to their feeding on the buds of Kalmia; but 
Wilson, the ornithologist, says he has eaten freely and without 
ill consequences, upon the flesh of these birds, when their crops 
had been found distended with Kalmia buds. Dr. Barton con- 
siders the Kalmia deleterious to the human system, and says 
that the Indians made use of a decoction of the leaves to destroy 
themselves. Dr. Bigelow, who has collected the facts in relation 
to this subject, and himself made experiments and chemical anal- 
yses to ascertain the properties of Kalmia latifolia, is inclined 
to think that “the noxions effect of the Kalmia upon young 
grazing animals, may be in some measure attributed to its indi- 
gestible quality, owing to the quantity of resin cuntamed in the 
leaves.” 
