Family

Heath.

Colour

White, or tinted with pink and red.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

Rhode Island to Florida.

Time Of Bloom

May, June.

Flowers: rather small; nodding; clustered on leafless shoots. Calyx: of five lanceolate sepals. Corolla: roundish; of five petals. Stamens: ten. Pistil: one. Leaves: oblong; glossy veined. A shrub two to four feet high.

Like lambkill the stagger-bush has a rather unkind way of dealing with young lambs and sheep that browse upon its green shoots. It turns their poor, foolish heads dizzy, or if they have persistently eaten too freely, it sends them to their everlasting rest. The shrub is very handsome and is generally found in the sandy, dry soil of low grounds about New York and Rhode Island. It is a connection of the Andromeda of the marshes.