44 
BROAD-LEAVED K A LM I A. 
extremity of the branches in beautiful groups, which derive additional lus- 
tre from the foliage which surrounds them. - 
The seeds are extremely minute, and are contained in capsules that open 
in the fall, for their escape. 
The wood of the Mountain Laurel is hard, compact and fine grained: 
but it is inferior in these respects to that of the Kalmia Latifolia. I do not 
know that it is appropriated to any use. 
This shrub has long existed in Europe ; but as it requires a cooler and 
more shady exposure, and more assiduous culture than the Rhododendrum 
ponticum, which is a native of the Alps and of the Pyrennees, it is less 
extensively multiplied. 
PLATE LXVJI. 
A branch with leaves and flowers of the natural size. Fig. 1 , A seed vessel. 
Fig. 2, Seeds. 
THE BKO AD-LEAVED KALMIA. 
Decandria monogynia. Linn. Rosaceæ. Juss. 
Kalmia latifolia. Latifolia L. K. arborescens ; foliis petiolatis ovalibus, 
coriaceis, glabris ; corymbis terminalihus , viscido-puberulis. 
The Broad Leaved Kalmia is a large shrub, which, if its height alone is 
considered, appears, like the preceding species, to be excluded from the 
class of vegetables which I have assumed the province of describing more 
particularly than has been done by preceding authors ; but the uses which 
are beginning to be made of its wood entitle it to our notice. It bears 
indifferently the names of Kalmia, Laurel and Calico Tree. 
The West end of Long Island and the vicinity of Poughkeepsie, which 
lies on the river Hudson, between the 42° and 43° of latitude, may be 
considered as nearly the northern limit of the Kalmia. I have never seen 
it on the shores of Lake Champlain, nor on the banks of the river Mohawk, 
where, in situations otherwise congenial, its growth is probably forbidden 
