Botonizing up the Railroad

August 8.

5 A.M.  -- Up railroad. The nabalus, which may have been out one week elsewhere.  

Also rough hawkweed, and that large asterlike flower Diplopappus umbellatus, a day or two. 

Smooth speedwell again. 

Erechthites. 

Columbine again. 

The first watermelon. 

Aster patens and Aster laevis, both a day or two.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 8, 1853

The nabalus, which may have been out one week elsewhere. See note to September 13, 1857 ("The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime")

Also rough hawkweed. See July 21, 1851 ("The rough hawkweed, too, resembling in its flower the autumnal dandelion.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Hawkweeds (hieracium)

That large asterlike flower Diplopappus. [Tall flat-top white aster] See August 1, 1856 ("Diplopappus umbellatus at Peter's wall."); August 24, 1853 ("D. umbellatus is conspicuous enough in some places (low grounds)"); August 24, 1859 ("Diplopappus umbellatus, how long?"); See August 31, 1853 ("The great white umbel-like tops of the Diplopappus umbellatus"); September 1, 1856 ("D. umbellatus, perhaps in prime or approaching it, but not much seen."); September 24, 1856 ("D. umbellatus, still abundant.")

Smooth speedwell again. See May 24, 1853 ("The smooth speedwell is in its prime now, whitening the sides of the back road . . . Its sweet little pansy like face looks up on all sides.")

Erechthites. See July 24, 1853 ("There is erechthites there [at Hubbard’s burnt meadow.], budded.") ; August 1, 1856 ("Erechthites, apparently two or three days, by Peter's Path, end of Cemetery, the middle flowers first.")

The first watermelon. See August 11, 1852 ("We had a ripe watermelon on the 7th."); August 19, 1851 ("Gathered our first watermelon to-day."); August 28, 1856 ("First watermelon.")

Aster patens and Aster laevis, both a day or two. July 13, 1856 ("Am surprised to see an Aster laevis, out a day or two, in road on sandy bank.") See July 19, 1854 ("I am surprised to see at Walden a single Aster patens "); July 27, 1853 ("I notice to-day the first purplish aster... The afternoon of the year.”); August 10, 1853 (" I see again the Aster patens . . . though this has no branches nor minute leaves atop.") see also August 12, 1856 ("The Aster patens is very handsome by the side of Moore's Swamp on the bank, — large flowers, more or less purplish or violet, each commonly (four or five) at the end of a long peduncle, three to six inches long, at right angles with the stem, giving it an open look.”); August 21, 1856 ("The commonest asters now are, 1st, the Radula; 2d, dumosus; 3d, patens; 4th, say puniceus; 5th, cordtfolius; 6th, macrophyllus; (these two a good while); 7th, say Tradescanti ; 8th, miser; 9th, longifolius; (these three quite rare yet); 10th, probably acuminatus, some time (not seen); 11th, undulatus; 12th, loevis; (these two scarcely to be seen yet)."); September 18, 1857 ("Going along the low path under Bartlett's Cliff, the Aster laevis flowers, when seen toward the sun, are very handsome, having a purple or lilac tint.")

August 8. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 8

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 ©  2009-2024

From Strawberry Hill the first glimpse of Nagog Pond.

September 6

September 6, 2022

2 P. M. — To Hapgood's in Acton direct, returning via Strawberry Hill and Smith's Road.

The ripening grapes begin to fill the air with their fragrance.

The vervain will hardly do for a clock, for I perceive that some later and smaller specimens have not much more than begun to blossom, while most have done.

Saw a tall pear tree by the roadside beyond Harris's in front of Hapgood's.

Saw the lambkill (Kalmia angustifolia) in blossom – a few fresh blossoms at the ends of the fresh twigs-on Strawberry Hill, beautiful bright flowers. Apparently a new spring with it, while seed vessels apparently of this year, hung dry below.

From Strawberry Hill the first, but a very slight, glimpse of Nagog Pond by standing up on the wall. That is enough to relate of a hill, methinks, that its elevation gives you the first sight of some distant lake.

The horizon is remarkably blue with mist this afternoon. Looking from this hill over Acton, successive valleys filled with blue mist appear, and divided by darker lines of wooded hills.

The shadows of the elms are deepened, as if the whole atmosphere were permeated by floods of ether.

Annursnack never looked so well as now seen from this hill.

The ether gives a velvet softness to the whole landscape. The hills float in it. A blue veil is drawn over the earth.

The elecampane (Inula Helenium) with its broad leaves wrinkled underneath and the remains of sunflower-like blossoms, in front of Nathan Brooks's, Acton, and near J. H. Wheeler's.

Prenanthes alba; this Gray calls Nabalus albus, white lettuce or rattlesnake-root. Also I seem (?) to have found Nabalus Fraseri, or lion's foot.

Every morning for a week there has been a fog which all disappeared by seven or eight o'clock.

A large field of sunflowers for hens now in full bloom at Temple's, surrounding the house, and now, at 6 o'clock P. M., facing the east.

The larches in the front yards, both Scotch and American, have turned red. Their fall has come.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 6, 1851

The ripening grapes begin to fill the air with their fragrance. See August 29, 1853 ("Walking down the street in the evening, I detect my neighbor’s ripening grapes by the scent twenty rods off"); August 29, 1859 ("The very earliest ripe grapes begin to be scented in the cool nights "); September 8, 1854 (I bring home a half-bushel of grapes to scent my chamber with"; September 8, 1858 (“Gather half my grapes, which for some time have perfumed the house.”)

The vervain will hardly do for a clock. Compare August 21, 1851 ("It is very pleasant to measure the progress of the season by this and similar clocks. So you get, not the absolute time, but the true time of the season.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Blue Vervain

Saw the lambkill (Kalmia angustifolia) in blossom. See September 10, 1857 ("I see lambkill ready to bloom a second time. Saw it out on the 20th; how long?"); September 19, 1852 ("The Viola lanceolata has blossomed again, and the lambkill. "); September 28, 1852 ("This is the commencement, then, of the second spring. Violets, Potentilla Canadensis, lambkill, wild rose, yellow lily, etc., etc., begin again"); September 29, 1853 ("Lambkill blossoms again.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Lambkill (Kalmia augustifolia)

Nabalus albus, white lettuce or rattlesnake-root. Also I seem (?) to have found Nabalus Fraseri, or lion's foot. See August 27, 1858 ("The Nabalus albus has been out some ten days, but N. Fraseri at Walden road will not open, apparently, for some days yet."); September 13, 1857 ("Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant, — yet in prime and not long out. The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime")

From Strawberry Hill the first, but a very slight, glimpse of Nagog Pond . See July 6, 1851 ("The distant hills look unusually near in this atmosphere. Acton meeting-houses seen to stand on the side of some hills, Nagog or Nashoba, beyond, as never before."); August 15, 1854 ("Cross from top of Annursnack to top of Strawberry Hill. The locomotive whistle, far southwest, sounds like a bell. From Strawberry Hill we steer northeast . . . We are completely lost, and see not one familiar object. At length see steeples which we think Westford, but the monument proves it Acton."); January 30, 1860 ("I see, when I look over our landscape from any eminence as far as the horizon, certain rounded hills, amid the plains and ridges and cliffs, which have a marked family likeness, like eggs that belong to one nest though scattered. They suggest a relation geologically. Such are, for instance, Nashoba, Annursnack, Nawshawtuct, and Ponkawtasset, all which have Indian names, as if the Indian, too, had regarded them as peculiarly distinct. There is also Round Hill in Sudbury, and perhaps a hill in Acton")

Looking from this hill over Acton, successive valleys filled with blue mist appear, and divided by darker lines of wooded hills. See November 9, 1851 ("To-day the mountains seen from the pasture above are dark blue, so dark that they look like new mountains and make a new impression, and the intervening town of Acton is seen against them in a new relation, a new neighborhood.")

The shadows of the elms are deepened. See June 2, 1852 ("The elms now hold a good deal of shade and look rich and heavy with foliage. You see darkness in them.")

Holding a white pine needle in my hand.

September 25. 

September 25, 2019

P. M. — To Emerson's Cliff. 

Holding a white pine needle in my hand, and turning it in a favorable light, as I sit upon this cliff, I perceive that each of its three edges is notched or serrated with minute forward-pointing bristles. 

So much does Nature avoid an unbroken line that even this slender leaf is serrated; though, to my surprise, neither Gray nor Bigelow mention it. Loudon, however, says, "Scabrous and inconspicuously serrated on the margin; spreading in summer, but in winter contracted, and lying close to the branches." 

Fine and smooth as it looks, it is serrated after all. This is its concealed wildness, by which it connects itself with the wilder oaks. 

Prinos berries are fairly ripe for a few days. 

Moles work in meadows.  

I see at Brister Spring Swamp the (apparently) Aspidium Noveboracense, more than half of it turned white. Also some dicksonia is about equally white. These especially are the white ones. There is another, largish, and more generally decayed than either of these, with large serrated segments, rather far apart, — perhaps the Asplenium Filix-foemina (?). The first may be called now the white fern, — with rather small entirish and flat segments close together. 

In shade is the laboratory of white. Color is produced in the sun. 

The cinnamon ferns are all a decaying brown there. The sober brown colors of those ferns are in harmony with the twilight of the swamp. 

The terminal shield fern and the Aspidium spinulosum (?) are still fresh and green, the first as much so as the polypody. 

At 2 p. m. the river is sixteen and three quarters inches above my hub[?] by boat. 

Nabalus albus still common, though much past prime. Though concealed amid trees, I find three humble-bees on one. As when Antaeus touched the earth, so when the mountaineer scents the fern, he bounds up like a chamois, or mountain goat, with renewed strength. There is no French perfumery about it. It has not been tampered with by any perfumer to their majesties. It is the fragrance of those plants whose impressions we see on our coal. Beware of the cultivation that eradicates it. 

The very crab-grass in our garden is for the most part a light straw-color and withered, probably by the frosts of the 15th and 16th, looking almost as white as the corn; and hundreds of sparrows (chip-birds ?) find their food amid it. The same frosts that kill and whiten the corn whiten many grasses thus.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 25, 1859

I see at Brister Spring Swamp the (apparently) Aspidium Noveboracense, more than half of it turned white. Also some dicksonia...perhaps the Asplenium Filix-foemina. See July 17, 1857 ("Aspidium Noveboracense at Corner Spring, not yet brown; also Aspidium Filix-foemina (?), with lunar-shaped fruit, not yet brown; also apparently a chaffy-stemmed dicksonia, densely brown-fruited")

The sober brown colors of those ferns are in harmony with the twilight of the swamp. See note to September 24, 1859 ("The tufts of cinnamon fern, now a pale brown.") See also 

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Cinnamon Fern

The terminal shield fern and the Aspidium spinulosum (?) are still fresh and green, the first as much so as the polypody. See September 30, 1859 ("The terminal shield fern is one of the handsomest. The most decidedly evergreen are the last, polypody, Aspidium marginale, and Aspidium spinulosum of Woodis Swamp and Brister's . . . Of the twenty-three ferns which I seem to know here, seven may be called evergreens."); October 23, 1857 ("The ferns which I can see on the bank, apparently all evergreens, are polypody at rock, marginal shield fern, terminal shield fern, and (I think it is) Aspidium spinulosum.. . .The above-named evergreen ferns are so much the more conspicuous on that pale-brown ground. They stand out all at once and are seen to be evergreen; their character appears.”); November 17, 1858 ("As for the evergreen ferns, I see now —

• Common polypody (though shrivelled by cold where exposed).
• Asplenium trichomanes.
• A. ebeneum.
• Aspidium spinulosum (?). large frond, small-fruited, in swamp southeast Brister’s Spring, on 16th.
• A. cristatum (?), Grackle Swamp on the 15th, with oftener what I take to be the narrower and more open sterile frond.
• A. marginale (common).
• A. achrostichoides (terminal shield).

The first one and the last two are particularly handsome, the last especially, it has so thick a frond.") See also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Evergreen Ferns, Part Three: Polypody, Marginal Shield Fern, Terminal Shield Fern andA Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Evergreen Ferns, Part Two: Aspidium spinulosum & Aspidium cristatum

Surprised to see frog spawn

September 1. 

P. M. — To Botrychium Swamp. 

Aster miser not long, but the leaves turned red. 

At the pool by the oaks behind Pratt’s, I see the Myriophyllum ambiguum still, and going to seed, greening the surface of the water. 

The Leersia oryzoides, false rice, or rice cut-grass, is abundant and in prime on the shore there. Also find it on the shore of Merrick’s pasture. It has very rough sheaths. 

Am surprised to see frog(?) spawn just laid, neither in spherical masses nor in a string, but flatted out thin on the surface, some eight or nine inches wide, — a small black spawn, white one side, as usual. 
I saw one or two R. fontinalis on the shore. Was it toad-spawn? 

Ranunculus repens

Ranunculus repens in bloom — as if begun again ? — at the violet wood-sorrel spring. 

Chelone glabra well out, how long? In the same meadow, Aster longifolius well out, not long. That meadow is white with the Eriophorum polystachyon, apparently var. augustifolium (?). Vide it pressed. 

On dry land, common, but apparently getting stale, Panicum clandestinum. 

Dangle-berries now ready for picking. 

At Botrychium Swamp, Nabalus altissimus. Of twenty plants (all in shade) only one out, apparently two or three days. Elsewhere,in open land, N. Fraseri, apparently several days, say five; but not a very rough one. 

Ledum Telephium, how long? 

In the evening, by the roadside, near R. W. E.’s gate, find a glow-worm of the common kind. Of two men, Dr. Bartlett and Charles Bowen, neither had ever seen it!

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 1, 1858


Rice cut-grass. Thoreau’s notes it also  on August 28, 1854 and August 1, 1856 at Great Meadows, on August 24, 1859 at the roadside of Corner road by the brook, on August 26, 1859 in prime at Potter’s holes, and on August 26, 1860 in the old pad ditch by the path beyond Hubbard’s Grove. - vascular plants of concord

Ranunculus repens in bloom — as if begun again ? — at the violet wood-sorrel spring. See August 10, 1853 (“The Ranunculus repens numerously out about Britton's Spring.”)

Aster longifolius well out. See September 1, 1856 ("A. longifolius, hardly one seen yet.”)

At Botrychium Swamp, Nabalus altissimus. Of twenty plants (all in shade) only one out.  See September 8, 1856 ("Along this path observed the Nabalus altissimus, flowers in a long panicle of axillary and terminal branches, small-flowered, now in prime.”)

Find a glow-worm of the common kind. Of two men, Dr. Bartlett and Charles Bowen, neither had ever seen it! See January 15, 1858 ("Dr. Durkee . . .has not seen the common glow-worm . . . Showed to Agassiz, Gould, and Jackson, and it was new to them.”)

Robins fly in flocks.

August 27. 

P. M. — To Walden. 

Dog-day weather again to-day, of which we had had none since the 18th, — i. e. clouds without rain. 

Wild carrot on railroad, apparently in prime. 
Hieracium Canadense, apparently in prime, and perhaps H. scabrum.

Lactuca, apparently much past prime, or nearly done. 

The Nabalus albus has been out some ten days, but N. Fraseri at Walden road will not open, apparently, for some days yet. 

I see round-leaved cornel fruit on Heywood Peak, now half China-blue and half white, each berry. 

Rhus Toxicodendron there is half of it turned scarlet and yellow, as if we had had a severe drought, when it has been remarkably wet. It seems, then, that in such situations some plants will always assume this prematurely withered autumnal aspect. 

Orchis lacera, probably done some time. 

Robins fly in flocks. 

Apparently Juncus tenuis, some time out of bloom, by depot wood-piles, i. e. between south wood-shed and good apple tree; some fifteen inches high. More at my boat’s shore.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 27, 1858

N. Fraseri at Walden road will not open, apparently, for some days yet. See September 13, 1857 (“Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant, ”); September 23, 1857 (“Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods.”)

Cornel fruit on Heywood Peak, now half China-blue and half white, each berry. See August 28, 1856 ("The bright china-colored blue berries of the Cornus sericea begin to show themselves along the river. .”)

Rhus Toxicodendron there is half of it turned scarlet and yellow, as if we had had a severe drought.  See September 30, 1857 (“Rhus Toxicodendron turned yellow and red, handsomely dotted with brown.”)

Orchis lacera, probably done some time. See July 13, 1856 ("Orchis lacera, apparently several days, lower part of spike, willow-row, Hubbard side, opposite Wheildon's land")

A very large black snake I thought was preparing to strike at me

May 16

A. M. – Up Assabet. 

Aralia nudicaulis at Island. The leaf-stalks are often eaten off, probably by some quadruped. 

The flower-buds of the Cornus florida are five eighths of an inch in diameter. 

The Salix lucida will hardly bloom within two days. The S. Torreyana catkins are so reddish that at a little distance it looks some what like the common black cherry now leafing. 

A hummingbird yesterday came into the next house and was caught. Flew about our parlor to-day and tasted Sophia's flowers. In some lights you saw none of the colors of its throat. In others, in the shade the throat was a clear bright scarlet, but in the sun it glowed with splendid metallic, fiery reflections about the neck and throat. 

It uttered from time to time, as it flew, a faint squeaking chirp or chirrup. The hum sounded more hollow when it approached a flower. Its wings fanned the air so forcibly that you-felt the cool wind they raised a foot off, and nearer it was very remarkable. Does not this very motion of the wings keep a bird cool in hot weather? 

The only indigenous willow I noticed yesterday on the Shawsheen — a mile below Fitch's mill — was the small sericea, such as by Assabet white maple. 

What was that loud but distant note of a bird, apparently in the low land, somewhat like the guinea-hen note, also reminding me a little of the plover about Truro light, but apparently a hawk? 

Got quite a view down the valley of the Shawsheen below the junction of Vine Brook, northeast, from a hill in the extreme northeast of Bedford.

P. M. – To Uvularia perfoliata at Flint's Pond. 

See again the warbler of yesterday. All bright yellow beneath and apparently bluish-slate above, but I do not see it well. Its note, with little variation, is like twit twit, twit twit, twitter twitter twe. It must be the parti-colored warbler.

Sat down in the sun in the path through Wright's wood-lot above Goose Pond, but soon, hearing a slight rustling, I looked round and saw a very large black snake about five feet long on the dry leaves, about a rod off. 

When I moved, it vibrated its tail very rapidly and smartly, which made quite a loud rustling or rattling sound, reminding me of the rattlesnake, as if many snakes obeyed the same instinct as the rattle snake when they vibrate their tails. Once I thought I heard a low hiss. 

It was on the edge of a young wood of oaks and a few white pines from ten to eighteen feet high, the oaks as yet bare of leaves. 

As I moved toward the snake, I thought it would take refuge in some hole, but it appeared that it was out on a scout and did not know of any place of refuge near. Suddenly, as it moved along, it erected itself half its length, and when I thought it was preparing to strike at me, to my surprise it glided up a slender oak sapling about an inch in diameter at the ground and ten feet high. 

It ascended this easily and quickly, at first, I think, slanting its body over the lowest twig of the next tree. There were seven little branches for nine feet, averaging about the size of a pipe-stem. It moved up in a somewhat zig zag manner, availing itself of the branches, yet also in part spirally about the main stem. It finds a rest (or hold if necessary) for its neck or forward part of its body, moving crosswise the small twigs, then draws up the rest of its body. From the top of this little oak it passed into the top of a white pine of the same height an inch and a half in diameter at the ground and two feet off; from this into another oak, fifteen feet high and three feet from the pine; from this to another oak, three feet from the last and about the same height; from this to a large oak about four feet off and three or four inches in diameter, in which it was about fourteen feet from the ground; thence through two more oaks, a little lower, at intervals of four feet, and so into a white pine; and at last into a smaller white pine and thence to the ground. 

The distance in a straight line from where it left the ground to where it descended was about twenty-five feet, and the greatest height it reached, about fourteen feet. It moved quite deliberately for the most part, choosing its course from tree to tree with great skill, and resting from time to time while it watched me, only my approach compelling it to move again. 

It surprised me very much to see it cross from tree to tree exactly like a squirrel, where there appeared little or no support for such a body. It would glide down the proper twig, its body resting at intervals of a foot or two, on the smaller side twigs, perchance, and then would easily cross an interval of two feet, sometimes in an ascending, sometimes a descending, direction. If the latter, its weight at last bent the first twig down nearer to the opposite one. It would extend its neck very much, as I could see by the increased width of the scales exposed, till its neck rested across the opposite twig, hold on all the while tightly to some part of the last twig by the very tip of its tail, which was curled round it just like a monkey's. 

I have hardly seen a squirrel rest on such slight twigs as it would rest on in mid-air, only two or three not bigger than a pipe-stem, while its body stretched clear a foot at least between two trees. It was not at all like creeping over a coarse basket work, but suggested long practice and skill, like the rope dancer's. There were no limbs for it to use comparable for size with its own body, and you hardly noticed the few slight twigs it rested on, as it glided through the air. 

When its neck rested on the opposite twig, it was, as it were, glued to it. It helped itself over or up them as surely as if it grasped with a hand. There were, no doubt, rigid kinks in its body when they were needed for support. It is a sort of endless hook, and, by its ability to bend its body in every direction, it finds some support on every side. Perhaps the edges of its scales give it a hold also. 

It is evident that it can take the young birds out of a sapling of any height, and no twigs are so small and pliant as to prevent it. Pendulous sprays would be the most difficult for it, where the twigs are more nearly parallel with the main one, as well as nearly vertical, but even then it might hold on by its tail while its head hung below. I have no doubt that this snake could have reached many of the oriole-nests which I have seen. 

I noticed that in its anger its rigid neck was very much flattened or compressed vertically. At length it coiled itself upon itself as if to strike, and, I presenting a stick, it struck it smartly and then darted away, running swiftly down the hill toward the pond. 

Yellow butterflies. 

Nabalus leaves are already up and coming up in the wood-paths. 

Also the radical leaves of one variety of Solidago arguta, and apparently of S. altissima, are conspicuously up. 

A golden-crowned thrush hops quite near. It is quite small, about the size of the creeper, with the upper part of its breast thickly and distinctly pencilled with black, a tawny head; and utters now only a sharp cluck for a chip. 

See and hear a redstart, the rhythm of whose strain is tse'-tse, tse'-tse, tse', emphasizing the last syllable of all and not ending with the common tsear. 

Hear the night-warbler. 

The Uvularia perfoliata, which did not show itself at all on the 3d, is now conspicuous, and one is open but will not shed pollen before to-morrow. It has shot up about ten inches in one case and bloomed within thirteen days!! 

Ranunculus repens at Brister's Spring; how long? Was that R. repens at the Everett Spring on the 3d? [Yes.]

The whip-poor-will heard. 

E. Hoar detected the other day two ovaries under one scale of a Salix rostrata, and, under another, a stamen and another stamen converted into an ovary.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 16, 1858

To Uvularia perfoliata at Flint's Pond. See May 30, 1857 ("By the path near the northeast shore of Flint's Pond. . .  am surprised to find it the Uvularia perfoliata, which I have not found hereabouts before.");  May 3, 1858 ("See no signs of the Uvularia perfoliata yet; apparently will not bloom within ten days") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Bellworts

A hummingbird in some lights the shade the throat was a clear bright scarlet, but in the sun it glowed with splendid metallic, fiery reflections. See  May 17, 1856 (" A splendid male hummingbird . . . This golden-green gem. Its burnished back looks as if covered with green scales dusted with gold. . . . turning toward me that splendid ruby on its breast, that glowing ruby.") May 15, 1855("Hear a hummingbird in the garden."); May 16, 1852 ("I hear a hummingbird about the columbines.").

By Flint’s Pond road in the woods.

September 23

September 23, 2017
Solidago, aster & vanessa

Wednesday. P. M. – To chestnut oaks. 

Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods. I observe in these places only the N. alba and Fraseri; but these are not well distinguished; they seem to be often alike in the color of the pappus. Some are very tall and slender, and the largest I saw was an N. Fraseri! One N. alba had a panicle three feet long! 

The Ripley beeches have been cut. I can’t find them. There is one large one, apparently on Baker's land, about two feet in diameter near the ground, but fruit hollow. 

I see yellow pine-sap, in the woods just east of where the beeches used to stand, just done, but the red variety is very common and quite fresh generally there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 23, 1857

Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods. See September 13, 1857 (“Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant, . . ."The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime.”);September 15, 1851 ("Prenanthes alba; this Gray calls Nabalus albus, white lettuce or rattlesnake-root. Also I seem (?) to have found Nabalus Fraseri, or lion's-foot.”);September 17, 1857 (“I go to Fair Haven Hill, looking at the varieties of nabalus, which have a singular prominence now in all woods and roadsides.”)

I see yellow pine-sap . . . just done, but the red variety is very common . See  September 23, 1860 (“Red pine-sap by north side of Yew Path some ten rods east of yew, not long done. The root of the freshest has a decided checkerberry scent, and for a long time — a week after — in my chamber, the bruised plant has a very pleasant earthy sweetness. ”). See also June 29, 1853 (“American pine-sap, just pushing up, — false beech- drops. Gray says from June to August. It is cream-colored or yellowish under the pines in Hubbard's Wood Path. Some near the fence east of the Close. A plant related to the tobacco-pipe.”);  July 29,1853 (“American pine-sap, just pushing up, — false beech-drops. Gray says from June to August. It is cream-colored or yellowish under the pines in Hubbard's Wood Path. Some near the fence east of the Close. A plant related to the tobacco-pipe. Remarkable this doubleness in nature, — not only that nature should be composed of just these individuals, but that there should be so rarely or never an individual without its kindred, — its cousin. It is allied to something else. There is not only the tobacco-pipe, but pine-sap.”); August 14, 1856 (“Hypopitys, just beyond the last large (two-stemmed) chestnut at Saw Mill Brook, about done. Apparently a fungus like plant. It erects itself in seed.”); August 23, 1858 (“See an abundance of pine-sap on the right of Pine-sap Path.”); October 6, 1857 (“I see a great quantity of hypopitys, now all sere, along the path in the woods beyond. Call it Pine-Sap Path. It seems to have been a favorable season for it”); October 14, 1858 ("On the top of Ball’s Hill, nearly half-way its length, the red pine-sap, quite fresh, apparently not long in bloom, the flower recurved. As last year, I suspect that this variety is later than the yellowish one, of which I have seen none for a long time."); November 25, 1857 ("Methinks there has been more pine-sap than usual the past summer. I never saw a quarter part so much. It stands there withered in dense brown masses, six or eight inches high, partly covered with dead leaves.") and note to September 9, 1857 (“C. brings me a small red hypopitys. It has a faint sweet, earthy, perhaps checkerberry, scent”) and A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Pine-sap and Indian-pipe

September 23, 2017

It has been a very warm week warmer in fact then the summer. We walk to the view and sit a long time longer than we planned  this extra time allows us to watch a flight of starlings cross the clearing and do a repeat performance then, unexpectedly a pileated bursts out of the woods and crosses the clearing this is the highlight of the walk. We go up the ravine past the Fisher “pond“ and around to the double chair New red pine needles are lightly strewn on the forest floor   we find a small bunch of white pine cones that has been nipped by a squirrel from the top of the tree. The cones are open, brown and very sticky.   We bushwhack  down the mountain.  By accident I come to the porcupine tree without knowing I was there or taking precautions with the dogs but all is well . At the lower view we snap a picture of the sun now setting  south of white face. I am hot and sweaty he when we get home. i think, “barred owls are the chickadees of the night”

This warm autumn day

unplanned a pileated

flys through the clearing.

zphx 20170923

Each plant has its turn.

September 17

Nabulus alba 

Thursday. 

I go to Fair Haven Hill, looking at the varieties of nabalus, which have a singular prominence now in all woods and roadsides. The lower leaves are very much eaten by insects. 

How perfectly each plant has its turn! – as if the seasons revolved for it alone. Two months ago it would have taken a sharp eye to have detected this plant. 

One of those great puffballs, three inches in diameter, ripe.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 17, 1857

The varieties of nabalus, which have a singular prominence now in all woods and roadsides:

• Nabalus alba = Prenanthes alba (White Lettuce) 
• Nabalus altissimus = Prenanthes altissima (Tall White Lettuce) 
• Nabalus boottii = Prenanthes bootie (Boot’s Rattlesnake Root.)
• Nabalus fraseri = Prenanthes serpentaria (Lion’s-foot)

See September 23, 1857 (“Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods.”), and  note to September 13, 1857 ("The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime.”)

How perfectly each plant has its turn! – as if the seasons revolved for it alone. See September 17, 1839 ("Nature never makes haste; her systems revolve at an even pace. The bud swells imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion, as though the short spring days were an eternity.") See also September 10, 1860 ("Almost every plant, however humble, has thus its day, and sooner or later becomes the characteristic feature of some part of the landscape or other."); September 13, 1852 (“How earnestly and rapidly each creature, each flower, is fulfilling its part while its day lasts! . . . The plant waits a whole year, and then blossoms the instant it is ready and the earth is ready for it, without the conception of delay.”); August 19, 1851("The seasons do not cease a moment to revolve, and therefore Nature rests no longer at her culminating point than at any other. If you are not out at the right instant, the summer may go by and you not see it.”); July 19, 1851 (" Yesterday it was spring, and to-morrow it will be autumn. Where is the summer then? Methinks my seasons revolve more slowly than those of nature; I am differently timed. Here I am thirty-four years old, and yet my life is almost wholly unexpanded. How much is in the germ! I may say I am unborn. If my curve is large, why bend it to a smaller circle? If life is a waiting, so be it. I am contented. Already the goldenrod is budded, but I can make no haste for that. Let a man step to the music which he hears, however measured.”)

One of those great puffballs.  See September 4, 1856 ("Large puffballs, sometime."); September 26, 1852 ("I see now ripe, large (three-inch), very dark chocolate(?)-colored puffballs"); October 2, 1858 ("A large chocolate-colored puffball “smokes.”")

September 17. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September 17

Each plant has its turn –

as if the seasons revolved 

for it alone.

A Book of the Seasons,   by Henry Thoreau, Each plant has its turn.

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 © 2009-2024

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-570917

A new plant.

September 13. 

Sunday. 

Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant, — yet in prime and not long out. The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 13, 1857

Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant. See September 6, 1851 ("Prenanthes alba; this Gray calls Nabalus albus, white lettuce or rattlesnake-root. Also I seem (?) to have found Nabalus Fraseri, or lion's-foot.”) Nabalus fraseri = Prenanthes serpentaria  Botanical Index to Thoreau's Journal

The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime. See July 28, 1856 ("Nabalus albus, a day or two.”); September 4, 1857 ("I see prenanthes radical leaf turned pale-yellow.”);August 27, 1858 ("The Nabalus albus has been out some ten days, but N. Fraseri at Walden road will not open, apparently, for some days yet.");  September 8, 1856 ("Along this path observed the Nabalus altissimus, flowers in a long panicle of axillary and terminal branches, small-flowered, now in prime.");  September 17, 1857 (“I go to Fair Haven Hill, looking at the varieties of nabalus, which have a singular prominence now in all woods and roadsides. ”); September 23, 1857 ("Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods....”); ,

There is the hobble-bush

September 8

Brattleboro. — Rains. 

Frost gives me an aster which he thinks A. concinnus of Wood; grows in woods and yet longer leaved. 

P. M. — Clearing up. 

I went a-botanizing by the Coldwater Path, for the most part along a steep wooded hillside on Whetstone Brook and through its interval. 

Plan of Brattleboro showing Whetstone Brook

(from the 1856 from the McClellan Map of Windham County)

In the last heavy rain, two or three weeks since, there was a remarkable freshet on this brook, such as has not been known before, the bridge and road carried away, the bed of the stream laid bare, a new channel being made, the interval covered with sand and gravel, and trees (buttonwood, etc.) brought down; several acres thus buried. Frost escaped from his house on a raft. 

I observed a stream of large bare white rocks four or five rods wide, which at first I thought had been washed down, but it seems this was the former bed of the stream, it having worn a new channel further east. 

Witch-hazel out, maybe a day or two, in some places, but the Browns do not think the fringed gentian out yet. 

There for the first time I see growing indigenously the Dirca palustns, leatherwood, the largest on the low interval by the brook. I notice a bush there seven feet high. In its form it is somewhat like a quince bush, though less spreading, its leaves broad, like entire sassafras leaves; now beginning to turn yellow. It has a remarkably strong thick bark and soft white wood which bends like lead (Gray says it is brittle!), the different layers separating at the end. I cut a good- sized switch, which was singularly tough and flexible, just like a cowhide, and would answer the purpose of one admirably. The color of the bark is a very pale brown. 

I was much interested in this shrub, since it was the Indian's rope. Frost said that the farmers of Vermont used it to tie up their fences with. Certainly there can be no wood equal to it as a withe. He says it is still strong when dry. I should think it would be worth the while for the farmers to cultivate for this purpose. How often in the woods and fields we want a string or rope and cannot find one. This is the plant which Nature has made for this purpose. 

The Browns gave me some of the flowers, which appear very early in spring. Gray says that in northern New England it is called wicopy. Potter, in History of Manchester, says Indians sewed canoes with it. Beck says, "The bark has a sweetish taste, and when chewed excites a burning sensation in the fauces," and, according to Emerson, the bark of this family, "taken into the stomach causes heat and vomiting, or purging" According to the latter, cordage has been made from the bark of this family, also paper. Emerson says of this plant in particular, "The fresh bark produces a sensation of heat in the stomach, and at last brings on vomiting . . . It has such strength that a man cannot pull apart so much as covers a branch of half or a third of an inch in diameter. It is used by millers and others for thongs." 

Indian cordage. I feel as if I had discovered a more indigenous plant than usual, it was so peculiarly useful to the aborigines. 

On that wooded hillside, I find small-flowered asters, A. miser-like, hairy, but very long linear leaves; possibly the var. hirsuta of A. miser (Oakes gives of A. miser, only the var. hirsuticaulis to Vermont) or else a neighboring species, for they seem distinct. (Vide press.) 

Round hobble-bush leaves

now beginning to turn a

deep dull crimson red.  

September 8, 2019

There is the hobble-bush with its berries and large roundish leaves, now beginning to turn a deep dull crimson red. 

Also mountain maples, with sharp-lobed leaves and downy beneath, the young plants numerous. 

The Ribes cynosbati, or prickly gooseberry, with its bur-like fruit, dry and still hanging here and there. 

Also the ground-hemlock, with its beautiful fruit, like a red waxen cup with a purple (?) fruit in it. 

By the edge of a ditch, where it had been overwhelmed and buried with mud by the later freshet, the Solidago Muhlenbergii in its prime. (Vide press.) 

Near by, on the bank of the ditch, leaves of coltsfoot. 

I had cut across the interval, but, taking to the Coldwater Path again near its southeast end, I found, at an angle in it near the canal, beech-drops under a beech, not yet out, and the Equisetum scirpoides, also radical leaves, very broad, perhaps of a sedge, some much longer. (Vide press.) 

Gathered flowering raspberries in all my walks and found them a pleasant berry, large, but never abundant. 

In a wet place on the interval the Veronica Americana, according to Frost (beccabunga of some), not in bloom. 

Along this path observed the Nabalus altissimus, flowers in a long panicle of axillary and terminal branches, small-flowered, now in prime. 

Leaves apparently of Oxalis Acetosella. 

Large roundish radical leaves on the moist wooded hillside, which the Browns thought of the round-leaved violet. 

Low, flat-topped, very rough hairy, apparently Aster acuminatus. 

Erigeron annuus, broad, thin, toothed leaves. 

Also another, perhaps hirsute A. miser, with toothed leaves. 

I hear that two thousand dollars' worth of huckleberries have been sold by the town of Ashby this season. 

Also gathered on this walk the Polypodium Dryopteris and Polystichum acrostichoides and a short heavy-odored (like stramonium) plant with aspect of lilac, not in bloom. (Vide press.)

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 8, 1856

There was a remarkable freshet on this brook, such as has not been known before, the bridge and road carried away. Compare Brattleboro assesses damage from Whetstone [2011] flash flood;  Aftermath of 1869 Flood, Brattleboro, Vermont and The Raging Whetstone Brook ("Oct. 4, 1869. For most of two days, heavy rains fell and the result was the largest flood of the Whetstone Brook in recorded history . . .  All of these businesses were damaged or destroyed [and] Nine bridges were whisked off by this raging Brook")

Witch-hazel out, maybe a day or two, in some places. See September 8, 1854 ("The witch-hazel on Dwarf Sumach Hill looks as if it would begin to blossom in a day or two.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Witch-Hazel

There is the hobble-bush.See September 6, 1852 ( Peterboro Hills) ("In the woods near the top, the Viburnum lantanoides, hobble-bush, American wayfaring-tree, in fruit, mostly large and red, but the ripe dark blue or black like the V. nudum, –– formerly falsely called moose-berry. Probably it does not grow in Concord")

Gathered flowering raspberries in all my walks and found them a pleasant berry, large, but never abundant. See September 6, 1856 ("I see the flowering raspberry still in bloom. This plant is quite common here [Brattleboro]. The fruit, now ripe, is red and quite agreeable, but not abundant."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Raspberry

Small-flowered asters, A. miser-like, hairy, but very long linear leaves; possibly the var. hirsuta of A. miser . . . Also another, perhaps hirsute A. miser, with toothed leaves. See  August 17, 1856 ("Aster miser some time, turned purple.");  August 21, 1856 ("The commonest asters now . . .8th, miser"); August 24, 1853 (" A. miser (?), with purplish disk and elliptic-lanceolate leaves, serrate in middle"); September 4, 1853 ("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, ")  See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Asters in August

At Brattleboro

botanizing Whetstone Brook

after the freshet.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, There is the hobble-bush

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 ©  2009-2026

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-560908