September 4.
5.30 A. M. – To Nawshawtuct by river.
Roman wormwood's yellow dust on my clothes.
Hear a warbling vireo, — something rare.
I do not succeed in making two varieties of Polygonum amphibium.
All mine, from three inches above water and floating to three feet high on dry land, are apparently one.
The first, at any rate, must be aquaticum, — floating, nearly smooth, and leaves more heart- shaped.
It appears by insensible gradations to pass into the other.
See one or two lilies yet.
The fragrance of a grape-vine branch, with ripe grapes on it, which I have brought home, fills the whole house. This fragrance is exceedingly rich, surpassing the flavor of any grape.
P. M. – To Cliffs via Hubbard ' s Swamp.
The skunk-cabbage fruit lies flat and black now in the meadow.
The Aster miser is a pretty flower, with its commonly wide and loose branches, variegated or parti-colored with its white rays and broad purplish (and yellow) disks giving it a modestly parti-colored look, with green leaves of sufficient breadth to relieve the flowers.
Would it not be worth the while to devote one day each year to collecting with pains the different kinds of asters, — perhaps about this time, — and another to the goldenrods?
In Potter's dry pasture I saw the ground black with blackbirds (troopials?). As I approach, the front rank rises and flits a little further back into the midst of the flock, — it rolls up on the edges, — and, being thus alarmed, they soon take to flight, with a loud rippling rustle, but soon alight again, the rear wheeling swiftly into place like well- drilled soldiers. Instead of being an irregular and disorderly crowd, they appear to know and keep their places and wheel with the precision of drilled troops.
The lycopodium now sheds its pollen commonly.
The hawks are soaring at the Cliffs. I think I never hear this peculiar, more musical scream, such as the jay appears to imitate, in the spring, only at and after midsummer when the young begin to fly.
In Hubbard ' s Swamp Path.
Probably Solidago speciosa, though not yet in blossom there, very broad leaves, the radical- like plantain, covering the ground, and for the most part no more.
Carried a pail this afternoon to collect goldenrods and berries.
The skunk-cabbage common.
Hazels high time to gather; bushes browned.
After handling some beaked hazelnuts the other day, observed my hand covered with extremely fine, shining, glass- like bristles.
Arum in prime.
The crowded clusters of shrub oak acorns are very handsome now, the rich, wholesome brown of the cups contrasting with the now clear green acorns, sometimes twenty- four with a breadth of three inches.
China-like berries of cornel along the river now abundant, some cymes wholly white; also the panicled there and in swamps, though its little red (?) fingery stems are oftenest bare, but are pretty enough, perhaps, to take the place of the berries.
The black choke-berries, as also choke-cherries, are stale.
The two- leaved Solomon's-seal has just begun to redden; so the largest one.
The creeping juniper berries are now a hoary green but full-grown.
The scarlet thorn is in many places quite edible and now a deep scarlet.
Polygonum and medeola now.
Green briar only begins to turn.
Viburnum nudum rather stale.
Clintonia probably about gone.
Carrion-flower in prime.
Maple viburnum fully ripe, like the dentatum.
Aralia hispida getting old.
Feverwort now.
Rose hips generally beginning; and the two primroses beginning.
Elder in prime, and cranberry.
Smooth sumach stale.
Celtis green.
There are, perhaps, four kinds of goldenrod in C. Hubbard's Swamp Path which I am not certain about: one, which I have called S. puberula, with reddish stem; another, tall and slender, smooth, with a pyramidal panicle with four to six broad rays, leaves lanceolate, dwindling to mere bracts, appressed and entirish above, virgata-like, which I will call S. virgata, — though its leaves are not entire, — till I examine the stricta again; also another, with thin lanceolate leaves, symmetrically tapering at each end, rough on the edges and serrate, with, I believe, six or seven rays (specimen now withered), and this I have already named for convenience ulmifolia, but the leaves are not elm-like.
Also another, with eight to twelve (?) rays and much narrower leaves than the above three, very taper-pointed, sessile, and with margined petiole and wavy upper, entire lower, lanceolate-spatulate, and toothed slightly near end.
Has the stricta leafets in the axils?
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 4, 1853
Hear a warbling vireo, — something rare. See September 6, 1858 ("Hear a warbling vireo, sounding very rare and rather imperfect."); September 6, 1859 ("A half-warbled strain from a warbling vireo in the elm-tops.")
The lycopodium now sheds its pollen commonly.
The hawks are soaring at the Cliffs. I think I never hear this peculiar, more musical scream, such as the jay appears to imitate, in the spring, only at and after midsummer when the young begin to fly.
In Hubbard ' s Swamp Path.
Probably Solidago speciosa, though not yet in blossom there, very broad leaves, the radical- like plantain, covering the ground, and for the most part no more.
Carried a pail this afternoon to collect goldenrods and berries.
The skunk-cabbage common.
Hazels high time to gather; bushes browned.
After handling some beaked hazelnuts the other day, observed my hand covered with extremely fine, shining, glass- like bristles.
Arum in prime.
The crowded clusters of shrub oak acorns are very handsome now, the rich, wholesome brown of the cups contrasting with the now clear green acorns, sometimes twenty- four with a breadth of three inches.
China-like berries of cornel along the river now abundant, some cymes wholly white; also the panicled there and in swamps, though its little red (?) fingery stems are oftenest bare, but are pretty enough, perhaps, to take the place of the berries.
The black choke-berries, as also choke-cherries, are stale.
The two- leaved Solomon's-seal has just begun to redden; so the largest one.
The creeping juniper berries are now a hoary green but full-grown.
The scarlet thorn is in many places quite edible and now a deep scarlet.
Polygonum and medeola now.
Green briar only begins to turn.
Viburnum nudum rather stale.
Clintonia probably about gone.
Carrion-flower in prime.
Maple viburnum fully ripe, like the dentatum.
Aralia hispida getting old.
Feverwort now.
Rose hips generally beginning; and the two primroses beginning.
Elder in prime, and cranberry.
Smooth sumach stale.
Celtis green.
There are, perhaps, four kinds of goldenrod in C. Hubbard's Swamp Path which I am not certain about: one, which I have called S. puberula, with reddish stem; another, tall and slender, smooth, with a pyramidal panicle with four to six broad rays, leaves lanceolate, dwindling to mere bracts, appressed and entirish above, virgata-like, which I will call S. virgata, — though its leaves are not entire, — till I examine the stricta again; also another, with thin lanceolate leaves, symmetrically tapering at each end, rough on the edges and serrate, with, I believe, six or seven rays (specimen now withered), and this I have already named for convenience ulmifolia, but the leaves are not elm-like.
Also another, with eight to twelve (?) rays and much narrower leaves than the above three, very taper-pointed, sessile, and with margined petiole and wavy upper, entire lower, lanceolate-spatulate, and toothed slightly near end.
Has the stricta leafets in the axils?
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 4, 1853
Hear a warbling vireo, — something rare. See September 6, 1858 ("Hear a warbling vireo, sounding very rare and rather imperfect."); September 6, 1859 ("A half-warbled strain from a warbling vireo in the elm-tops.")
The hawks are soaring at the Cliffs. See September 16, 1852 ("What makes this such a day for hawks? There are eight or ten in sight from the Cliffs."); October 28, 1857 ("Again, I hear the scream of a hen-hawk, soaring and circling onward.")
Would it not be worth the while to devote one day each year to collecting with pains the different kinds of asters, — perhaps about this time, — and another to the goldenrods? See September 1, 1856 ("I think it stands about thus with asters and golden-rods now.”); September 24, 1856 (“Methinks it stands thus with goldenrods and asters now”); October 8, 1856 ("The following is the condition of the asters and goldenrods")
Would it not be worth the while to devote one day each year to collecting with pains the different kinds of asters, — perhaps about this time, — and another to the goldenrods? See September 1, 1856 ("I think it stands about thus with asters and golden-rods now.”); September 24, 1856 (“Methinks it stands thus with goldenrods and asters now”); October 8, 1856 ("The following is the condition of the asters and goldenrods")
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