Kalmia

Kalmia, a genus of plants of the natural order Ericæe, consisting of evergreen shrubs, mostly about two or three feet high, natives of North America, with red, pink, or white flowers, generally in corymbs. The flowers are very delicate and beautiful, and the corolla is in the shape of a wide and shallow bell. Some of the species are frequent ornaments of gardens in Britain. They delight in a peat soil. K. latifolia, the Mountain Laurel, or Calico Bush, occupies large tracts on the Alleghany Mountains. It grows to the height of ten feet, and the wood is very hard. It is narcotic and dangerous; the leaves are poisonous to many animals, and the honey of the flowers possesses noxious properties. A decoction of the leaves has been used with advantage in cutaneous diseases, but taken internally it is fatal. A decoction of the leaves of K. angustifolia is used by the negroes of North Carolina, of which state the plant is a native, as a wash for ulcerations between the toes.