To Easterbrooks Country.

September 21. 

Hard rain last night. River rising again.

The pods of the broom are nearly half of them open. I perceive that one, just ready to open, opens with a slight spring on being touched, and the pods at once twist and curl a little.

I suspect that such seeds as these will turn out to be more sought after by birds and quadrupeds, and so transported by them, than those lighter ones furnished with a pappus and transported by the wind; and that those the wind takes are less generally the food of birds and quadrupeds than the heavier and wingless seeds.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 21, 1860

Hard rain last night. River rising again.  See September 12, 1860 ("Very heavy rain to-day (equinoctial), raising the river suddenly.") and note to September 20, 1857 ("This is our first fall rain, and makes a dividing line between the summer and fall.")

Those the wind takes are less generally the food of birds and quadrupeds than the heavier and wingless seeds. See The Succession of Forest Trees ("It remains, then, only to show how the seed is transported from where it grows to where it is planted. This is done chiefly by the agency of the wind, water, and animals. The lighter seeds, as those of pines and maples, are transported chiefly by wind and water; the heavier, as acorns and nuts, by animals.")