BOG KALMIA 



Kalmia polifolia Wangenheim 



Bog kalmia is a handsome member of the Heath Family, though 

 never so showy as Kalmia latifolia, the mountain-laurel of our hill- 

 sides and woods. Growing in sphagnum bogs, it is a shrub two feet 

 or less in height, with thick,leathery leaves that remain green through- 

 out the winter. The flowers are attractive to bees, but the leaves, like 

 those of other Kalmias, are poisonous to stock. The fruit is a small, 

 dry capsule. This species is easily distinguished from lambkill, Kalmia 

 angustijolia, with which it is sometimes confused, by the insertion of 

 the flowers at the naked tip of the stem, rather than among the leaves. 



Bog kalmia ranges from northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania to 

 Michigan, and northward to Alaska, Hudson Bay, and Newfoundland. 



The specimen sketched was cultivated in the greenhouses of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, District of Columbia. 



PLATE 133 



