A yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow.

May 22. 

May 22, 2015

P. M. —To Viola Muhlenbergii, which is abundantly out; how long? A small pale-blue flower growing in dense bunches, but in spots a little drier than the V. cucullata and blanda. 

Veronica peregrina, apparently several days. 

A yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow. 

Polygonatum pubescens at rock. 

Aralia nudicaulis, apparently a day or two where heat is reflected from the rock on Island. 

Choke cherry and crataegus there in a day or two. 

The Cornus florida does not bloom this year. 

Hemlock and creeping juniper, not quite yet. The red and cream-colored cone-shaped staminate buds of the black spruce will apparently shed pollen in one to three days? They are nearly half an inch long. 

I see beds of anemones amid or under clumps of hazels: a mass of their pretty leaves and flowers, five or six feet in diameter. 

I see a common Vaccinium vacillans (?),with a leaf much like that of the V. Pennsylvanicum, also the common V. vacillans with more rounded glaucous leaves. 

I noticed a cobweb the other day, between the thole-pins of my boat, which was perfectly black with those little fuzzy gnats which fly at that height and take shelter from wind in boats and the like. 

A little clammy hairy cerastium (?) (like a Cerastium viscosum, slender and erect), about three inches high, will open in a day or two on the rock near the bass.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 22, 1856


To Viola Muhlenbergii, which is abundantly out; how long? A small pale-blue flower growing in dense bunches, but in spots a little drier than the V. cucullata and blanda. See May 22, 1853 ("Found an abundance of the Viola Muhlenbergii (debilis of Bigelow), a stalked violet, pale blue and bearded.") See also May 5, 1859 ("Am surprised to find the Viola Muhlenbergii quite abundant beyond the bayberry and near the wall.”); May 12, 1858 ("Find the Viola Muhlenbergii abundantly out (how long?), in the meadow southwest of Farmer's Spring.”); May 18, 1857 (“Viola Muhlenbergii abundantly out, how long?”). May 29, 1856 ("What a flowery place, a vale of Enna, is that [Painted Cup] meadow! Painted Cup, Erigeron bellidifolius, Thalictrum dioicum, Viola Muhlenbergii, fringed polygala, buck-bean, pedicularis, orobanche, etc., etc. Where you find a rare flower, expect to find more rare ones”) And see A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Violets


Veronica peregrina, apparently several days.  See May 25, 1855 ("Veronica peregrina in Mackay’s strawberries, how long? “); May 5, 1859 ("Veronica peregrina, Pratt's garden.”)

A yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow. See May 5, 1859 (“Near the oak beyond Jarvis land, a yellow butterfly, — how hot! this meteor dancing through the air.”)

Aralia nudicaulis, apparently a day or two. . . See May 25, 1855 ("Aralia nudicaulis, perhaps two days pollen.”); May 25, 1852 ("The sarsaparilla in bloom”).

The Cornus florida does not bloom this year. . . . See May 25, 1855 ("Cornus florida, no bloom. Was there year before last? Does it not flower every other year?”)