What green, herbaceous, graminivorous ideas he must have! I wish that my thoughts were as seasonable as his!

September 6. 

Sunday. P. M. – To Assabet, west bank. 

Turned off south at Derby's Bridge and walked through a long field, half meadow, half upland. Soapwort gentian, out not long, and dwarf cornel again. 

There is a handsome crescent-shaped meadow on this side, opposite Harrington's. A good-sized black oak in the pasture by the road half-way between the school house and Brown’s. 

Walked under Brown’s hemlocks by the railroad. How commonly hemlocks grow on the north slope of a hill near its base, with only bare reddened ground beneath! This bareness probably is not due to any peculiar quality in the hemlocks, for I observe that it is the same under pitch and white pines when equally thick. I suspect that it is owing more to the shade than to the fallen leaves. 

I see one of those peculiarly green locusts with long and slender legs on a grass stem, which are often concealed by their color. What green, herbaceous, graminivorous ideas he must have! I wish that my thoughts were as seasonable as his! 

Some haws begin to be ripe. 

We go along under the hill and woods north of railroad, west of Lords land, about to the west of the swamp and to the Indian ditch. I see in the swamp black choke berries twelve feet high at least and in fruit. 

C. says that they use high blueberry wood for tholepins on the Plymouth ponds. 

I observe to-day, away at the south end of our dry garden, a moist and handsome Rana halecina. It is the only frog that I ever see in such localities. He is quite a traveller. 

A very cool day.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 6, 1857

Soapwort gentian, out not long. See September 8, 1852 ("Gentiana saponaria out."); September 19, 1851 ("The soapwort gentian now.");  September 19, 1852 ("The soapwort gentian cheers and surprises, -- solid bulbs of blue from the shade, the stale grown purplish. It abounds along the river, after so much has been mown"); September 22, 1852 ("The soapwort gentian the flower of the river-banks now.") September 25, 1857 ("You notice now the dark-blue dome of the soapwort gentian in cool and shady places under the bank.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Soapwort Gentian

I see one of those peculiarly green locusts . . . which are often concealed by their color. See August 21, 1853 ("Saw one of those light-green locusts about three quarters of an inch long on a currant leaf in the garden . . . The wings are transparent, with marks somewhat like a letter."); August 23, 1856 ("A green locust an inch and three quarters long"); August 27, 1860 ("See one of the shrilling green alder locusts on the under side of a grape leaf. Its body is about three quarters of an inch or less in length; antennae and all, two inches. Its wings a . . . transparent, with lines crossing them.")

Rana halecina (Lithobates pipiens) – Northern Leopard Frog.  See August 22, 1854 ("There are now hopping all over this meadow small Rana palustris, and also some more beautifully spotted halecina or shad frogs."); June 17, 1856 ("Went to Rev. Horace James’s reptiles (Orthodox) . . . He distinguished the Rana halecina in the alcohol by more squarish (?) spots."); April 3, 1858 ("They were the R. halecina. I could see very plainly the two very prominent yellow lines along the sides of the head and the large dark ocellated marks, even under water, on the thighs, etc. . . .Their note is a hard dry tut tut tut tut, not at all ringing like the toad’s . . . and from time to time one makes that faint somewhat bullfrog-like er er er. Both these sounds, then, are made by one frog, and what I have formerly thought an early bullfrog note was this. This, I think, is the first frog sound I have heard from the river meadows or anywhere . . .")