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Kalmia Angustifolia. Narrow-Leav'd Kalmia.
Class and Order.
Decandria Monogynia.
Generic Character.
Cal. 5-partitus. Cor. hypocrateriformis, limbo subtus quinque corni. Caps. 5-locularis.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
KALMIA angustifolia foliis lanceolatis, corymbis lateralibus. Linn. Syst. Veget. ed. 14. Murr. p. 404. Ait. Kew. v. 2. p. 64. Gronov. Fl. Virg. p. 65.
CHAMÆDAPHNE sempervirens, foliis oblongis angustis, foliorum fasciculis oppositis e foliorum alis. Catesb. Carol. app. t. 17. f. 1.
LEDUM floribus bullatis fasciculatim ex alis foliorum oppositis nascentibus, foliis lanceolatis integerrimis glabris. Trew. Ehr. t. 38.
No. 331
In this work we have already given three different species of Kalmia, two commonly, and one more rarely cultivated with us, we mean the hirsuta, and which indeed we are sorry to find is scarcely to be kept alive in this country by the most skilfull management; to these we now add another species, a native also of North-America, introduced by Peter Collinson, Esq. in 1736, two years after he had introduced the latifolia; Catesby mentions its having flowered at Peckham in 1743; it is a low shrub, rarely rising above the height of two feet, growing spontaneously in swampy ground, and flowering with us from May to July; there are two principal varieties of it, one with pale and another with deep red flowers; these two plants differ also in their habits, the red one, the most humble of the two, not only produces the most brilliant flowers, but those in greater abundance than the other; Mr. Whitley, who has these plants in great perfection, assures me that it usually blows in the autumn as well as summer.
This shrub is extremely hardy, thriving best in bog earth, and is propagated most commonly by layers.
Like the latifolia, it is regarded in America as poisonous to sheep.