In a freshet the water rises higher as you go down the river.

July 8. 

Friday. 

I see an emperor moth (Attacus Cecropia), which came out the 6th. 

P. M. — To Clamshell by river. 

The Carex Muhlenbergii is common on Clamshell slope, just beyond the ravine. 

Thimble-berries have begun. 

The islands of the river, below the Assabet especially, — as Hosmer's, and the one just below French's Rock, — are now covered with 

• canary grass, which has almost entirely done and closed up; 
• fowl-meadow (Poa serotina), now fairly begun to bloom (first noticed the middle of June its slender green panicles shaped like a green red-top);
• Glyceria fluitans, going out of bloom; also
•  the sensitive fern (the "hand leaf" of haymakers); 
• pipes; 
• (and sedges, which might be named as soon as any, as the crinita which overhangs the water). 

I judge that in a freshet the water rises higher as you go down the river, both from the height to which it rose last March, as shown me at several bridges, and from the height of the bridges themselves, which the builders have been gradually compelled to raise, for the most part just above high-water mark.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 8, 1859

I see an emperor moth (Attacus Cecropia), which came out the 6th. See May 6, 1858 ("A boy brings me to-day an Attacus Cecropia moth . . ., the male, a dark brown above, and considerably larger than mine. It must be about seven inches in alar extent."); June 2, 1855 ("It was surprising to see the creature unfold and expand before our eyes, the wings gradually elongating, . . .at dusk, when apparently it was waving its wings preparatory to its evening flight, I gave it ether and so saved it in a perfect state.");June 18, 1857 ("They brought me an Attacus Cecropia . . . Its body was large like the one I have preserved"); June 22, 1857 ("It seems that Sophia found an Attacus Cecropia out in my chamber last Monday, or the 15th. It soon went to laying eggs on the window-sill, ")

Thimble-berries have begun.  See July 13, 1856 ("Thimble-berries are now fairly ripe and abundant");  July 17, 1856 ("On Linnaea Hill many thimble-berries and some raspberries."); July 18, 1854 ("As I go along the Joe Smith road, every bush and bramble bears its fruit; the sides of the road are a fruit garden; blackberries, huckleberries, thimble-berries, fresh and abundant, no signs of drought; all fruits in abundance; the earth teems. "); July 21, 1856 ("Low blackberries thick enough to pick in some places, three or four days. Thimble-berries about the 12th, and V. Pennsylvanicum much longer.").

The sensitive fern (the "hand leaf" of haymakers.) See September 6, 1856 ("The sensitiveness of the sensitive fern. If you take a tender plant by the stem, the warmth of your hand will cause the leaves to curl."); August 19, 1854 ("The very light yellowish-green of the sensitive fern which the mowers have left.")

Botanizing at Brattleboro

September 6

At Brattleboro. 

Mr. Charles C. Frost showed me a printed list of the flowers of B., furnished by him to a newspaper in B. some years since. He says he finds Aster simplex and A. ptarmicoides there (according to Oakes the latter is not found in New England out of Vermont), the latter now covered by the high water of the river; also A. concinnus, of Wood, perhaps (not in Gray) (vide specimen pressed); also Solidago patula and serotina, as well as Canadensis and gigantea. 

Also finds, he says, Helianthus giganteus (Oakes gives only H. divaricatus and decapetalus to Vermont), with quite small flowers, bank of river, behind town-house; and decapetalus and strumosus.

Speaks of the fragrance of the dicksonia fern and the sensitiveness of the sensitive fern. If you take a tender plant by the stem, the warmth of your hand will cause the leaves to curl. 

Thought my great dish-cover fungus a Coprolus (?) (so called from growing in dung?). 

Read in Thompson's History of Vermont, which contains very good natural history, including a catalogue of the Plants of Vermont made by Oakes and, in the last edition, additional ones found by Frost. 

A. M. — Walked down the railroad about a mile, returning partly by river-bank. 

The depot is on the site of "Thunderbolt's" house. He was a Scotch highwayman. Called himself Dr. Wilson when here. 

The prevailing polygonum in B. was a new one to me, P. Pennsylvanicum, but not roughish on the veins, apparently in prime, with the aspect of P. Persicaria, sometimes spreading and stretching four feet along a hillside, but commonly in rather low ground, roadsides. 

For the first time distinguish the Aster cordifolius, a prevailing one in B. and but just beginning to flower; like an A. undulatus with narrow-winged petioles and sharp-toothed leaves; amid bushes and edges of woods, sometimes four feet high, panicled. 

I see the flowering raspberry still in bloom. This plant is quite common here. The fruit, now ripe, is red and quite agreeable, but not abundant. 

Desmodium Canadense still. 

Maple-leaved viburnum very abundant here, a prevailing shrub. Berries apparently now in prime, or a little earlier than this, ovoid, dull blue-black. 

Pluck some rose leaves by Connecticut (vide press), with now smooth, somewhat pear-shaped hips; not a sweet-briar. Also Cornus circinata berries, very light blue or bluish-white. 

Cirsium discolor, roadside below depot, apparently in prime, much like lanceolatum, but smaller leaves, whitish beneath and inner scales unarmed. 

Frost said that Dr. Kane left B. the morning of the day I arrived, and had given him a list of arctic plants brought home by him, which he showed me, — pages from his Report, in press. 

The Solidago Canadensis very common, apparently in prime; also perfectly smooth ones with glaucous stems like some of ours. I am in doubt whether the last, or any that we have in Concord, is the S. serotina or gigantea. Frost says he distinguishes both, but Oakes does not give the S. serotina to Vermont. I should say he had but one kind, which varied from leaves rough above and on the veins beneath, and stems smooth below and pubescent above, to leaves quite smooth on both sides and stems very smooth and glaucous; rays also vary very much in size. Or are these only varieties of the Canadensis ? ? 

I find small grapes a third of an inch in diameter, many ripe, on the bank of the Connecticut, — pleasantly acid. Clusters three to four or five inches long. The leaves are sharply toothed and green on both sides. Is it the Vitis cordifolia? 

I see also a vine with leaves rusty-downy beneath and not conspicuously toothed, with equally small now green grapes, apparently like ours. Is not this V. aestivalis? Of the latter the berries are said to be pleasant, and ripe in October.  

Snake-root
September 6, 2020
(Mt. Pritchard)

Eupatorium ageratoides, white snake-root, in rather low ground or on banks along riverside, apparently in prime.

Apparently Helianthus decapetalus, or cut-toothed helianthus, the teeth much larger than with us. 

Solidago arguta very common, apparently in prime, with sharp-toothed, more or less elliptic leaves and slender terminal drooping racemes; size of S. stricta.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 6, 1856

For the first time distinguish the Aster cordifolius,  [blue wood aster]  a prevailing one in B[rattleboro] and but just beginning to flower.  See  September 21, 1858 ("In Marblehead, Aster cordifolius, abundant, railroad;"); September 22, 1858 [from Salem to Cape Ann on foot] ("I had seen in this day’s walk an abundance of Aster cordifolius"); October 9, 1859 ("Aster cordifolius abundant and commonly in bloom in Roxbury.")

I see the flowering raspberry still in bloom. See September 8, 1856 ("Gathered flowering raspberries in all my walks and found them a pleasant berry, large, but never abundant") See also June 28, 1852 ("The Rubus odorata, purple flowering raspberry, in gardens.")

Eupatorium ageratoides, white snake-root, apparently in prime. [Note The only reference to white snake-root (Ageratina Altissima ) in Thoreau’s Journal relate to its occurrence in Brattleboro. Vascular Flora of Concord, Massachusetts compiled by Ray Angelo]

(Oakes gives only H. divaricatus and decapetalus to Vermont) . . . Apparently Helianthus decapetalus, or cut-toothed helianthus, the teeth much larger than with us. See August 29, 1856 ("The Helianthus decapetalus, apparently a variety, with eight petals, about three feet high, leaves petioled, but not wing-petioled."); September 2, 1856  ("A short time ago, I was satisfied that there was but one kind of sunflower (divaricatus) indigenous here . . . But within that hour my genius conducted me to where I had seen the tall plants, and it was the other man's new kind. The next day I found a third kind, miles from there, and, a few days after, a fourth in another direction."); August 30, 1859 ("The prevailing flowers . . . Helianthuses, as Helianthus decapetalus, divaricatus, annum, etc.") 

Solidago arguta very common, apparently in prime. See August 26, 1858 ("The Solidago arguta is apparently in its prime."); September 11, 1857 ("My old S. stricta (early form) must be S. Arguta var. juncea."); September 19, 1857 ("Solidago arguta variety done, say a week or more.") [Solidago arguta in old usage, or (misapplied) solidago stricta, is solidago juncea (early goldenrod) ~Vascular Flora of Concord, Massachusetts.]

September 6. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  September 6

Raspberry in bloom

fruit red and agreeable

but not abundant.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Botanizing at Brattleboro

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-560906

The meadows by the railroad appear fresh and tender green.

August  19. 

August 19, 2015

The meadows by the railroad appear to have got an exceedingly fresh and tender green. 

The near meadow is very beautiful now, seen from the railroad through this dog-day haze, which softens its fresh green of so many various shades, blending them harmoniously, — darker and lighter patches of grass and the very light yellowish-green of the sensitive fern which the mowers have left. It has an indescribable beauty to my eye now, which it could not have in a clear day. 

The haze has the effect both of a wash or varnish and of a harmonizing tint. It destroys the idea of definite distance which distinctness suggests. 

It is as if you had painted a meadow of fresh grass springing up after the mower, — here a dark green, there lighter, and there again the yellowish onoclea, — then washed it over with some gum like a map and tinted the paper of a fine misty blue. This is an effect of the dog-days.

There is such a haze we see not further than our Annursnack, which is blue as a mountain.

There is now a remarkable drought, some of whose phenomena I have referred to during several weeks past.  Many white birches long since lost the greater part of their leaves, which cover the ground, sere and brown as in autumn. 

So like tinder is everything now that we passed three places within a mile where the old sleepers heaped up by the track had just been set on fire by the engine, — in one place a large pile.  

Flint's Pond has fallen very much since I was here. The shore is so exposed that you can walk round, which I have not known possible for several years, and the outlet is dry. But Walden is not affected by the drought.

Plucked, about 4.30, one bunch of Viburnum nudum berries, all green, with very little pink tinge even. When I got home at 6.30, nine were turned blue, the next morning thirty. It seems that they do not always pass through the deep-pink stage. They are quite sweet to eat, like raisins. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 19, 1854

Fresh green of so many various shades blending . . . harmoniously. See August 19, 1853 ("The different shades of green of different and the same trees . . . melting into one another . . . make a most glorious soft and harmonious picture, only to be seen at this season of the day and perhaps of the year”)

The very light yellowish-green of the sensitive fern which the mowers have left. See August 6, 1854 ("Small light-green sensitive ferns are springing up full of light on the bank.") September 6, 1856 ("The sensitiveness of the sensitive fern. If you take a tender plant by the stem, the warmth of your hand will cause the leaves to curl.")

There is such a haze we see not further than our Annursnack, which is blue as a mountain. See August 13, 1854 ("Now the mountains are concealed by the dog-day haze”); August 22, 1854 (“The haze is so thick that we can hardly see more than a mile.”); Compare August 19, 1858 ("The dog-day weather is suddenly gone and here is a cool, clear, and elastic air. You may say it is the first day of autumn.")

There is now a remarkable drought.  See July 13, 1854 (“In the midst of July heat and drought.”);  July 14, 1854 (“Awake to day of gentle rain, — very much needed; none to speak of for nearly a month, methinks”); September 10, 1854 ("September 1st and 2d, the thunder-shower of evening of September 6th, and this regular storm are the first fall rains after the long drought.”)

Flint's Pond has fallen very much . . . But Walden is not affected by the drought. See  Walden ("The pond rises and falls, but whether regularly or not, and within what period, nobody knows, though, as usual, many pretend to know. . . . Flint's Pond, a mile eastward . . . sympathize[s] with Walden, and recently attained their greatest height at the same time with the latter.")  and note to December 5, 1852 ("Walden has no visible inlet nor outlet, but it is . . . distantly and indirectly related to Flint's Pond")

One bunch of Viburnum nudum berries, all green, with very little pink tinge even. See August 12, 1854 ("They are a very pretty, irregularly elliptical berry, one side longer than the other, and particularly interesting on account of the mixture of light-green, deep-pink, and dark-purple, and also withered berries, in the same cyme. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Viburnum

August 19. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 19

Fresh and tender green 

of so many shades blending 

harmoniously.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The meadows by the railroad

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-540819