P. M. — Walked with Minot Pratt behind his house.
Pratt describes finding one or two small yellowish plants on the edge of his field under the hill, like a polygala, but twice as large, stiff, and points of the flowers turned down [?]; leaf clover-like, three-foliate. Russell had suggested genista.
- Hypericum Canadense well out at 2 p. m.
- Ludwigia alternifolia still with red or scarlet calyx-lobes to the seed, roadside this side H. Shattuck's.
- Aster miser some time, turned purple. A. longifolius not long.
- Hieracium Canadense.
- He has in his garden the mountain fringe (Adlumia cirrhosa), which grows in Maine and he thought in the western part of this State.
- Also wood geranium (G. dissectum (Big.)) from Fitzwilliam, though Gray seems to think that the Carolinianum has been mistaken for it.
Saw again the red huckleberry and the white hardhack.
The red huckleberry is as easily distinguished in the green state as when ripe. It is then red with a white cheek, often slightly pear-shaped, semitransparent with a lustre, very finely and indistinctly white-dotted. I do not perceive any very marked peculiarity in the bush, unless that the recent twigs are red. The last year's a peculiar ochreous color and the red buds in the axils larger. It might be called Gaylussacia resinosa var. erythrocarpa.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 17, 1856
Hieracium Canadense. See July 25, 1856 ("The Hieracium Canadense grows by the road fence in Potter's hydrocotyle field, some seven or eight inches high, in dense tufts!"); August 1, 1854 ("Hieracium Canadense, apparently a day or two."); August 9, 1853 ("The Hieracium Canadense is out and is abundant at Peter's well"); October 2, 1856 ("Hieracium Canadense still quite fresh, with its very pretty broad strap-shaped rays, broadest at the end, alternately long and short, with five very regular sharp teeth in the end of each. "); see also August 21, 1851 ("I have now found all the hawkweeds. Singular these genera of plants, plants manifestly related yet distinct. They suggest a history to nature, a natural history in a new sense.”) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Hawkweeds (hieracium)
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 17, 1856
Hypericum Canadense well out at 2 p. m. See August 15, 1859 ("Hypericum Canadense, Canadian St. John's-wort, distinguished by its red capsules. The petals shine under the microscope, as if they had a golden dew on them."); August 19, 1851("Now for the pretty red capsules or pods of the Hypericum Canadense."); August 19, 1856 (" I see Hypericum Canadense and mutilum abundantly open at 3 p. m.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, St. Johns-wort (Hypericum)
Hieracium Canadense. See July 25, 1856 ("The Hieracium Canadense grows by the road fence in Potter's hydrocotyle field, some seven or eight inches high, in dense tufts!"); August 1, 1854 ("Hieracium Canadense, apparently a day or two."); August 9, 1853 ("The Hieracium Canadense is out and is abundant at Peter's well"); October 2, 1856 ("Hieracium Canadense still quite fresh, with its very pretty broad strap-shaped rays, broadest at the end, alternately long and short, with five very regular sharp teeth in the end of each. "); see also August 21, 1851 ("I have now found all the hawkweeds. Singular these genera of plants, plants manifestly related yet distinct. They suggest a history to nature, a natural history in a new sense.”) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Hawkweeds (hieracium)
Pratt describes finding one or two small yellowish plants on the edge of his field under the hill, like a polygala, but twice as large. See August 17, 1851("The Polygala sanguinea, caducous polygala, in damp ground, with red or purple heads.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Polygala (milkworts)
Saw again the red huckleberry . . . as easily distinguished in the green state as when ripe . . . It might be called Gaylussacia resinosa var. erythrocarpa. See May 18, 1857 ("The red huckleberry looks more forward — blossom-buds more swollen — than those of common there."); June 7, 1857 ("Pratt has . . . Red huckleberry about same time. It is sticky like the black."); July 13, 1857 ("See the indigo-bird still, chirping anxiously on the bushes in that sprout-land beyond the red huckleberry"); August 2, 1853 ("John Legross brought me a quantity of red huckleberries yesterday. The less ripe are whitish. I suspect that these are the white huckleberries."); Compare August 8, 1858 (“The Gaylussacia dumosa var. hiriella is the prevailing low shrub, perhaps. I See one ripe berry. This is the only inedible species of ' Vaccinieaz that I know in this town"); August 17, 1852 ("Gaylussada frondosa, blue-tangle, dangle-berry, ripe perhaps a week."); August 4, 1856 ("Large blue and also shining black huckleberries (Gaylussacia resinosa) of various flavors and qualities"); August 7, 1858 ("Find huckleberries which are distinctly pear-shaped, all of them. These and also other roundish ones near by, and apparently huckleberries generally, are dotted or apparently dusted over with a yellow dust or meal, which looks as if it could be rubbed off. Through a glass it looks like a resin which has exuded."); August 8, 1858 ("The berries are round and glossy-black, with resinous dots, as usual, and in flattish-topped racemes, sometimes ten or twelve in a raceme, but generally more scattered. Call it, perhaps, the tall swamp huckleberry."); August 30, 1856 (Beck Stow's Swamp) ("I noticed also a few small peculiar-looking huckleberries hanging on bushes amid the sphagnum, and, tasting, perceived that they were hispid, a new kind to me. Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella. . . It grows from one to two feet high, the leaves minutely resinous- dotted — are not others ? — and mucronate, the racemes long, with leaf-like bracts now turned conspicuously red. Has a small black hairy or hispid berry, shining but insipid and inedible, with a tough, hairy skin left in the mouth; has very prominent calyx-lobes. I seemed to have reached a new world, so wild a place that the very huckleberries grew hairy and were inedible. I feel as if I were in Rupert's Land, and a slight cool but agreeable shudder comes over me, as if equally far away from human society. . . . That wild hairy huckleberry, inedible as it was, was equal to a domain secured to me and reaching to the South Sea. That was an unexpected harvest.") See also December 30, 1860 ("The Whortleberry Family"); January 11, 1861 ("I presume that every one of my audience knows what a huckleberry is, — has seen a huckleberry, gathered a huckleberry, and, finally, has tasted a huckleberry, and, that being the case, I think that I need offer no apology if I make huckleberries my theme this evening.") and Wild Fruits ("But the most marked variety is the red huckleberry, the white of some (for the less ripe are whitish), which ripens the same time with the black. It is red with a white cheek, offend slightly pear-shaped, semi-transparent with a luster, very finely and indistinctly white-dotted. It is as easily distinguished form the common in the tree state as when ripe. I know of but three or four places in the town where they grow.")
Aster miser some time, turned purple. A. longifolius not long. See August 21, 1856 ("The commonest asters now . . .8th, miser; 9th, longifolius"); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Asters in August
Saw again the red huckleberry . . . as easily distinguished in the green state as when ripe . . . It might be called Gaylussacia resinosa var. erythrocarpa. See May 18, 1857 ("The red huckleberry looks more forward — blossom-buds more swollen — than those of common there."); June 7, 1857 ("Pratt has . . . Red huckleberry about same time. It is sticky like the black."); July 13, 1857 ("See the indigo-bird still, chirping anxiously on the bushes in that sprout-land beyond the red huckleberry"); August 2, 1853 ("John Legross brought me a quantity of red huckleberries yesterday. The less ripe are whitish. I suspect that these are the white huckleberries."); Compare August 8, 1858 (“The Gaylussacia dumosa var. hiriella is the prevailing low shrub, perhaps. I See one ripe berry. This is the only inedible species of ' Vaccinieaz that I know in this town"); August 17, 1852 ("Gaylussada frondosa, blue-tangle, dangle-berry, ripe perhaps a week."); August 4, 1856 ("Large blue and also shining black huckleberries (Gaylussacia resinosa) of various flavors and qualities"); August 7, 1858 ("Find huckleberries which are distinctly pear-shaped, all of them. These and also other roundish ones near by, and apparently huckleberries generally, are dotted or apparently dusted over with a yellow dust or meal, which looks as if it could be rubbed off. Through a glass it looks like a resin which has exuded."); August 8, 1858 ("The berries are round and glossy-black, with resinous dots, as usual, and in flattish-topped racemes, sometimes ten or twelve in a raceme, but generally more scattered. Call it, perhaps, the tall swamp huckleberry."); August 30, 1856 (Beck Stow's Swamp) ("I noticed also a few small peculiar-looking huckleberries hanging on bushes amid the sphagnum, and, tasting, perceived that they were hispid, a new kind to me. Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella. . . It grows from one to two feet high, the leaves minutely resinous- dotted — are not others ? — and mucronate, the racemes long, with leaf-like bracts now turned conspicuously red. Has a small black hairy or hispid berry, shining but insipid and inedible, with a tough, hairy skin left in the mouth; has very prominent calyx-lobes. I seemed to have reached a new world, so wild a place that the very huckleberries grew hairy and were inedible. I feel as if I were in Rupert's Land, and a slight cool but agreeable shudder comes over me, as if equally far away from human society. . . . That wild hairy huckleberry, inedible as it was, was equal to a domain secured to me and reaching to the South Sea. That was an unexpected harvest.") See also December 30, 1860 ("The Whortleberry Family"); January 11, 1861 ("I presume that every one of my audience knows what a huckleberry is, — has seen a huckleberry, gathered a huckleberry, and, finally, has tasted a huckleberry, and, that being the case, I think that I need offer no apology if I make huckleberries my theme this evening.") and Wild Fruits ("But the most marked variety is the red huckleberry, the white of some (for the less ripe are whitish), which ripens the same time with the black. It is red with a white cheek, offend slightly pear-shaped, semi-transparent with a luster, very finely and indistinctly white-dotted. It is as easily distinguished form the common in the tree state as when ripe. I know of but three or four places in the town where they grow.")
[Note: Gaylussacia resinosa is an old name for Gaylussacia baccata.(black huckleberry) Thoreau makes his red (or white) huckleberry a variant of the black. But see Berrying with Thoreau ("What Thoreau called a red huckleberry was likely a regional variation, an underripe black huckleberry (Gaylussacia), or a closely related local Vaccinium species (like the mountain cranberry or highbush blueberry variant).") Thoreau also describes the dangle-berry and the "tall swamp" and "hairy" huckleberry.
GoBotany says that in New England:we haveonly three species: Gaylussacia baccata - Black huckleberry; Gaylussacia bigelovian a/k/a dumosa -Bog or Dwarf huckleberry; and Gaylussacia frondosa - Dangleberry or Blue huckleberry.]
August 17. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 17
A white cheek when ripe
white-dotted slightly pear-shaped
red huckleberry.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The red huckleberry
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,out-of-doors, in its own locality.”~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2026
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-560817
No comments:
Post a Comment