Botanizing cape cod.

July 7.

Smilax glauca in blossom, running over the shrubbery. Honkenya peploides, sea sandwort, just out of bloom on beach. The thick-leaved and dense tufted, upright plant Salsola Kali, saltwort, prickly and glaucous, in bloom. Beach pea (Lathyrus maritimus) going out of bloom.

The piping plover running and standing on the beach, and a few mackerel gulls skimming over the sea and fishing. 

Josh(?) pears (“ juicy,” suggests Small) just begun; few here compared with Provincetown; do not cook them. 

Seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens) not nearly yet. Xanthium echinatum, sea cocklebur or sea-burdock, not yet.

What that smilacina-like plant very common in the shrubbery, a foot high, with now green fruit big as peas at end of spike, with reddish streaks? Uncle Sam calls it snake-corn. It is Smilacina racemosa. Brought home some fruit.

Just south of the lighthouse near the bank on a steep hillside, the savory-leaved aster (Diplopappus linarifolius) and mouse-ear (Gnaphalium plantaginifolium) form a dense sward, being short and thick; the aster not yet out.

Scarlet pimpernel, or poor-man’s weather glass (Anagallis arvensis), in bloom some time, very common on sandy fields and sands, and very pretty, with a peculiar scarlet.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 7, 1855

Just south of the lighthouse near the bank on a steep hillside, the savory-leaved aster (Diplopappus linarifolius) not yet out. See August 22, 1859 ("The savory-leaved aster (Diplopappus linariifolius) out; how long?"); September 18, 1856 ("Diplopappus linariifolius in prime.")