At entrance to pokelogan near Assabet Bathing-Place.

July 11.

Rain last night.

The aromatic trichostema now springing up. 

Trichostema dichotomum
 (blue-curl)

Gnaphalium uliginosum now. 

Gnaphalium uliginosum
 (Marsh Cudweed)

Hydrocotyle, some days.

Agrimony, also, some days.

Button-bush.

Centaurea nigra, some time, Union Turnpike, against E.Wood's, low ground, and Ludwigia alternifolia, apparently just begun, at entrance to pokelogan near Assabet Bathing-Place.

The small crypta already in fruit.

I find in the river, especially near the Assabet Bathing Place, a ranunculus some of whose leaves are capillary, others merely wedge-cut or divided.

Is it not the R. aquatilis? But I see no flowers. [I think it is the R. Purshii.]


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 11, 1853

The aromatic trichostema[blue-curls]now springing up. See July 31, 1856 ("Trichostema has now for some time been springing up in the fields, giving out its aromatic scent when bruised, and I see one ready to open.");August 9, 1851 ("The Trichostema dichotomum is quite beautiful now in the cool of the morning."); August 11, 1853 ("Evening draws on while I am gathering bundles of pennyroyal on the further Conantum height. I find it amid the stubble mixed with blue-curls and, as fast as I get my hand full, tie it into a fragrant bundle.”); August 13, 1856 (“Is there not now a prevalence of aromatic herbs in prime? — The polygala roots, blue-curls, wormwood, pennyroyal, . . . etc., etc. Does not the season require this tonic?“);  August 17, 1851 ("The Trichostema dichotomum, — not only its bright blue flower above the sand, but its strong wormwood scent which belongs to the season, -- feed my spirit.");

Gnaphalium uliginosum now. See June 24, 1853 ("The Gnaphalium uliginosum seems to be almost in blossom."); July 17, 1852 ("Gnaphalium uliginosum by the roadside,"); July 24, 1856 ("Some Gnaphalium uliginosum going to seed; how long?")

I think it is the R. Purshii. See June 6, 1857 ('The Ranunculus Purshii is in some places abundantly out now and quite showy. It must be our largest ranunculus (flower).”); July 2, 1853 ("The Ranunculus Purshiï is very rarely seen now.”)

July 11. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 11

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2021