(Plate LXXXIV)

Family

Heath.

Colour

Rich, deep,pinkish crimson.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

New foundland to Georgia.

Time of Bloom

June.

Flowers: axillary; clustered in corymbs. Calyx: of five sepals. Corolla: not quite half an inch broad, with five lobes. Stamens: ten; the anthers dark-coloured and nestling in the pouches. Pistil: one. Leaves: narrow; in whorls of three; pale. A shrub growing about a foot high.

Such a wealth of witchery clusters about lambkill that we are very, very lenient to its failings and almost prone to forgive them altogether. It is, unhappily, the most poisonous of the laurels, and exercises this power over poor, dumb animals, which, to say the least, is not very sportsmanlike of lambkill. But, on the other side, it is most stupid of the brute world to attempt to feast upon this lovely shrub when it is so evidently intended to please another sense; for a hillside, or low ground, that is covered with it, is about as fair a sight as can be seen.