The sequence of fall flowers

September 18.

Fringed gentian near Peter’s out a short time, but as there is so little, and that has been cut off by the mowers, and this is not the leading stem that blooms, it may after all be earlier than the hazel. 

Viburnum nudum in flower again.

I see the potatoes all black with frosts that have occurred within a night or two in Moore’s Swamp.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 18, 1854

The fringed gentian. See  October 19, 1852 ("It is a very singular and agreeable surprise to come upon this conspicuous and handsome and withal blue flower at this season, when flowers have passed out of our minds and memories; the latest of all to begin to bloom.")  

Fringed gentian . . . may after all be earlier than the hazel. See September 18, 1856 ("The gentian is now far more generally out here than the hazel."); September 18, 1859 ("From the observation of this year I should say that the fringed gentian opened before the witch-hazel.”); October 2, 1853 ("The gentian in Hubbard's Close is frost-bitten extensively. As the witch-hazel is raised above frost and can afford to be later, for this reason also I think it is so.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau: The Fringed Gentian

Viburnum nudum in flower again. Compare September 3, 1856 ("Gather four or five quarts of Viburnum nudum berries, now in their prime, attracted more by the beauty of the cymes than the flavor of the fruit.") See also  September 16, 1859 ("So it is with flowers, birds, and frogs a renewal of spring."); September 28, 1852 ("This is the commencement, then, of the second spring. Violets, Potentilla Canadensis, lambkill, wild rose, yellow lily, etc., etc., begin again") and A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Viburnums

I see the potatoes all black with frosts that have occurred within a night or two in Moore’s Swamp. See September 18, 1860 ("Corn-stalk-tops are stacked about the fields; potatoes are being dug; smokes are seen in the horizon. It is the season of agricultural fairs.") See also August 12, 1856 ("What a wilderness of weeds is Moore's Swamp now! Tall rough goldenrods, erechthites, poke, Aster Radula, dogwood, etc., etc. It looks as if the potatoes which grew there would be poisonous."); September 11, 1854 ("This is a cold evening with a white twilight, and threatens frost"); September 15, 1851 ("The potato vines and the beans which were still green are now blackened and flattened by the frost."); September 15, 1859 ("This morning the first frost in the garden, killing some of our vines."); September 16, 1854 ("There have been a few slight frosts in some places.")

September 18. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, September 18

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The sequence of fall flowers

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

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