Bluer than the bluest sky.

September 28. 

Tuesday. P. M. ——To Great Fields via Gentian Lane. 

September 28, 2018

The gentian (Andrewsii), now generally in prime, loves moist, shady banks, and its transcendent blue shows best in the shade and suggests coolness; contrasts there with the fresh green;—a splendid blue, light in the shade, turning to purple with age. They are particularly abundant under the north side of the willow-row in Merrick’s pasture. I count fifteen in a single cluster there, and afterward twenty at Gentian Lane near Flint’s Bridge, and there were other clusters below. Bluer than the bluest sky, they lurk in the moist an shady recesses of the banks. 

Acalypha is killed by frost, and rhexia.

Liatris done, apparently some time. 

When Gosnold and Pring and Champlain coasted along our shores, even then the small shrub oak grew on the mainland, with its pretty acorns striped dark and light alternately. [The black oak acorns also slightly marked thus.]

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 28, 1858

The gentian (Andrewsii), now generally in prime—a splendid blue, light in the shade, turning to purple with age. See August 29, 1858 ("Gentiana Andrewsii, one not quite shedding pollen."); September 25, 1858  ("The Gentiana Andrewsii are now in prime at Gentian Shore. Some are turned dark or reddish-purple with age.")

Liatris done, apparently some time. See August 1, 1856  ("Liatris will apparently open in a day or two.");August 26, 1858 ("The liatris is about (or nearly) in prime."); September 6, 1859 ("The liatris is, perhaps, a little past prime. It is a very rich purple in favorable lights and makes a great show where it grows.")

The small shrub oak with its pretty acorns striped dark and light alternately. See September 30, 1854 ("The conventional acorn of art is of course of no particular species, but the artist might find it worth his while to study Nature’s varieties again.")