One of the qualities of a pregnant fact is that it does not surprise us until afterward.

October 1. 

Very heavy rain in the night; cooler now. 

P. M. — To Walden. 

October 1, 2016

Examine an Asclepias Cornuti pod, already opening by the wall. As they dry, the pods crack and open by the seam along the convex or outer side of the pods, revealing the seeds, with their silky parachutes, closely packed in an imbricated manner, already right side up to the number, in one instance, of one hundred and thirty-four (as I counted) and again two hundred and seventy. 

As they lie they resemble somewhat a round plump fish with the silk ends exposed at the tail. Children call them fishes. The silk is divided once or twice by their raised partitions of the spongy core around which they are arranged. At the top of some more open and drier, is already a little cloud of loosened seeds and down, two or three inches in diameter, held by the converging tips of the down like meridians, just ready to float away when the wind rises. 

It is cooler and windier, and I wear two thin coats. 

I do not perceive the poetic and dramatic capabilities of an anecdote or story which is told me, its significance, till some time afterwards. One of the qualities of a pregnant fact is that it does not surprise us, and we only perceive afterward how interesting it is, and then must know all the particulars. 

We do not enjoy poetry fully unless we know it to be poetry.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 1, 1856


Examine an Asclepias Cornuti pod.  Compare September 21, 1856 ("The Asclepias obtusifolia . . . A fairy-like casket, shaped like a canoe, with its closely packed imbricated brown seeds, with their yet compressed silvery parachutes like finest unsoiled silk in the right position above them, ready to be wafted some dry and breezy day to their destined places.”). See also September 24, 1852 ("Who could believe in prophecies of Daniel or of Miller that the world would end this summer, while one milkweed with faith matured its seeds? ") and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Milkweed.

Ready to float away when the wind rises. See September 21, 1856 ("Asclepias Cornuti discounting.The seeded parachutes which I release soon come to earth, but probably if they waited for a stronger wind to release them they would be carried far "); October 8, 1851 ("The milkweed seeds must be carried far, for it is only when a strong wind is blowing that they are loosened from their pods")

The pregnant fact . . . we only perceive afterward how interesting it is. See January 10, 1854 ("What you can recall of a walk on the second day will differ from what you remember on the first day . . . as any view changes to one who is journeying amid mountains when he has increased the distance.") April 20, 1854 ("I find some advantage in describing the experience of a day on the day following. At this distance it is more ideal, like the landscape seen with the head inverted, or reflections in water"); May 5, 1852 ("I succeed best when I recur to my experience not too late, but within a day or two; when there is some distance, but enough of freshness.”); July 23, 1851 ("Do not tread on the heels of your experience. Be impressed without making a minute of it. Put an interval between the impression and the expression, - wait till the seed germinates naturally.”)