The early willows now show great green wands a foot or two long.

May 13. 

P. M. – To Island. 

May 13, 2018

Uvularia sessilifolia is well out in Island woods, opposite Bath Rock; how long? 

The early willows now show great green wands a foot or two long, consisting of curled worm-like catkins three inches long, now in their prime. They present conspicuous masses of green now before the leaves are noticeable, like the fruit of the elm at present. Some have begun to show their down. So this is apparently the next tree (or shrub ?) after the elm to shed its seeds. 

I wade through the great Lee farm meadow. Many Emys picta which I see have perfectly fresh and clear black scales now. I can even see the outlines of the bony plates beneath impressed in the scales. These turtles abound now in the shallow pools in the meadows with grassy or weedy bottoms. I notice on one, part of whose rear marginal plate is broken, two small claw-like horny appendages on the skin, just over the tail. 

Viola lanceolata, how long?

As I sat in my boat near the Bath Rock at Island, I saw a red squirrel steal slyly up a red maple, as if he were in search of a bird’s nest (though it is early for most), and I thought I would see what he was at. He crept far out on the slender branches and, reaching out his neck, nibbled off the fruit-stems, sometimes bending them within reach with his paw; and then, squatting on the twig, he voraciously devoured the half-grown keys, using his paws to direct them to his mouth, as a nut. Bunch after bunch he plucked and ate, letting many fall, and he made an abundant if not sumptuous feast, the whole tree hanging red with fruit around him. It seemed like a fairy fruit as I sat looking toward the sun and saw the red keys made all glowing and transparent by the sun between me and the body of the squirrel. 

It was certainly a cheering sight, a cunning red squirrel perched on a slender twig between you and the sun, feasting on the hand some red maple keys. He nibbled voraciously, as if they were a sweet and luscious fruit to him. What an abundance and variety of food is now ready for him! At length, when the wind suddenly began to blow hard and shake the twig on which he sat, he quickly ran down a dozen feet. 

The large globular masses of oat spawn, often on the very top of the old pontederia stems and also on the shooting Equisetum limosum, of the same color with the weeds and bottom, look like a seedy fruit which is divested of its rind.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 13, 1858

Uvularia sessilifolia is well out in Island woods, opposite Bath Rock. See May 13, 1854 ("Uvularias, amid the dry tree-tops near the azaleas.”); May 14, 1852 (“The Uvularia sessilifolio, a drooping flower with tender stems and leaves; the latter curled so as to show their under sides hanging about the stems, as if shrinking from the cold.”)

The early willows now show great green wands a foot or two long... See May 14, 1852 ("Going over the Corner causeway, the willow blossoms fill the air with a sweet fragrance, and I am ready to sing, Ah! willow, willow! These willows have yellow bark, bear yellow flowers and yellowish-green leaves...”)
Many Emys picta which I see have perfectly fresh and clear black scales now. See May 10, 1857 (“Now the Emys picta lie out in great numbers, this suddenly warm weather, and when you go along the road within a few rods they tumble in. The banks of some ditches look almost as if paved with them.”); March 28, 1857 (“The Emys picta, now pretty numerous, when young and fresh, with smooth black scales without moss or other imperfection, unworn. . .”); September 3, 1856 (“I see painted tortoises with their entire backs covered with perfectly fresh clean black scales.”); and note to August 31, 1856 ("A painted tortoise shedding its scales”)

Viola lanceolata, how long? See May 6, 1855 ("Viola lanceolata, yesterday at least.”); May 10, 1856 ("I see there, just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda passing into the V. lanceolate, which last also is now in bloom, probably earlier there than in wetter places. May have been as early as the blanda.”); May 18, 1854 ("To Pedrick's meadow. Viola lanceolata, two days at least.”)

The large globular masses of oat spawn, often on the very top of the old pontederia stems. See May 4, 1858 (“What I have heretofore called the oat spawn, attached to old pontederia stems, laid ten days. [Is it not that of the R. fontinalis?]”); May 6, 1856 (“Oat spawn showing little pollywogs (?) in meadow water.”); May 8, 1858 (“I see a great deal of the oat spawn . . . It is over the coarse, weedy (pontederia and yellow lily stubble)”); May 11, 1855 (“See oat-seed spawn — a mass as big as fist —- on bottom; of brown jelly composed of smaller globules, each with a fish-like tadpole, color of a seed.”); May 13, 1857 ("A large bunch of oat spawn in meadow water. “)