I hear of the first early blueberries.

July 16. 

Thursday. P. M. — To Hemlocks. 

Geum album, apparently well out. 

As I walk through the pasture side of the hill, see a mouse or two glance before me in faint galleries in the grass. They are seldom seen, for these small deer, like the larger, disappear suddenly, as if they had exploded before your eyes. 

Lechea thymifolia of Gray is the large-podded one according to plate in his "Genera.” 

G., in same, shows five petals to Portulaca and says it "has from early times been naturalized around gardens almost every where ... is said to be truly wild in Arkansas and Texas.” *

I hear of the first early blueberries brought to market. What a variety of rich blues their berries present, i. e. the earliest kind! Some are quite black and without bloom. What innocent flavors!

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 16, 1857

Geum album, apparently well out.  See July 6, 1856 (“White avens, evidently Bigelow’s Geum album (which Gray makes only a variety of G. Virginianum), a good while, very rough and so much earlier than the G. Virginianum that only one flower remains. The heads have attained their full size, with twisted tails to the awns, while the other will not open for some days. I think Bigelow must be right.”) See also July 16, 1856 (“Geum Virginianum, apparently two or three days.”); June 28, 1857 (“Geum Virginianum some time, apparently, past its prime . . .say, then, the 18th. ”);

G[ray] shows five petals to Portulaca . . . See August 14, 1856 ("On roadside heap at Emerson's, a portulaca with leaves one inch wide and seven petals (!) instead of five.”)

• *"Asa Gray, The Genera of the Plants of the United States , Portulaca -  Purslane : "Etymology, Geographical Distribution, &c. The old Latin name, of uncertain meaning, for the Common Purslane, which has been used from all antiquity as a potherh, and in salads. All are natives of the tropics and of the southern border of the northern temperate zone ; but the common Purslane has from early times been naturalized around gardens almost every where. Several showy species have recently become common in cultiva tion. P. pilosa is indigenous on our Southern frontiers ; and P. oleracea itself is said to be truly wild in Arkansas and Texas.”

What a variety of rich blues their berries present, See July 11, 1857 (“Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum ripe. Their dark blue with a bloom is a color that surprises me. ”); July 13, 1852 ("There are evidently several kinds of . . . blueberries not described by botanists: of the very early blueberries at least two varieties, one glossy black with dark-green leaves, the other a rich light blue with bloom and yellowish-green leaves"); July 13, 1854 (“The V. Pennsylvanicum is soft and rather thin and tasteless, mountain and spring like, with its fine light-blue bloom, very handsome, simple and ambrosial.”) August 4, 1856 (“still fresh, the great very light blue (i. e. with a very thick blue bloom) Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum in heavy clusters, that early ambrosial fruit, delicate-flavored, thin-skinned, and cool, — Olympian fruit”) See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Blueberry