Nightshade berries begin to ripen

July 28. 

7 A. M. – To Azalea Brook.

The mikania is hardly out yet; like the eupatoriums, shows its color long before it opens.

The vernonia not quite yet.

The lilies, though a little less numerous, appear freer from insects than at first. Their pads not so much eaten as those of the nuphar.

The pickerel-weed has passed its prime.

The pettymorel at the brook not out, though that by the Corner Spring has berries.

P. M. – To Clematis Brook via Lee's with Mr. Conway.

Tells me of a kind of apple tree with very thick leaves near the houses in Virginia called the tea-tree, under which they take tea, even through an ordinary shower, it sheds the rain so well, and there the table constantly stands in warm weather.

The Gerardia flava in the hickory grove behind Lee's Cliff, some days. Answers apparently in every respect to the above, yet its lower leaves are like narrow white oak leaves. Have I seen the G. quercifolia? 

Is that the Cicuta bulbifera just out at Clematis Brook, with decompound leaves and linear leafets fringe toothed?? 

That low hieracium, hairy, especially the lower part, with several hairy, obovate or oblanceolate leaves, remotely, very slightly, toothed, and glandular hairs on peduncles and calyx, a few heads, some days at least. Vide herbarium.

Saw lower leaves of the white vervain turned a reddish lake or claret.

Nightshade berries begin to ripen, — to be red.

Is that rather coarse flower about Mrs. Brooks's house (escaped from cultivation), called Bouncing Bet, and which has been open ten days or more, Saponaria Vaccaria, — cow-herb?

The mullein pink is also escaped from gardens thereabouts.

Aster linariifolius.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 28, 1853

The Gerardia flava in the hickory grove behind Lee's Cliff .See July 28, 1856 (Gerardia flava, apparently several days.) See also July 22, 1854 ("Gerardia flava, apparently two or three days, Lupine Hillside up railroad, near fence") [Gerardia flava now know as Aureolaria flava (smooth false foxglove)]

That low hieracium, hairy, especially the lower part, with several hairy, obovate or oblanceolate leaves. some days at least.  See July 28, 1852 ("What is that slender hieracium or aster-like plant in woods on Corner road with lanceolate, coarsely feather-veined leaves, sessile and remotely toothed; minute, clustered, imbricate buds (?) or flowers and buds? Panicled hieracium?") See also  July 31, 1856 ("Hieracium paniculatum by Gerardia quercifolia path in woods under Cliffs, two or three days."); August 21, 1851 ("Hieracium paniculatum, a very delicate and slender hawkweed. I have now found all the hawkweeds. Singular these genera of plants, plants manifestly related yet distinct. They suggest a history to nature, a natural history in a new sense.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Hawkweeds (hieracium)

Saw lower leaves of the white vervain turned a reddish lake or claret. See August 6, 1853 ("lower leaves of some catnip and a white vervain have turned.")

Nightshade berries begin to ripen, — to be red. See August 5, 1856 ("Nightshade berries, how long?"); August 20, 1851 ("Where the brook issues from the pond, the nightshade grows profusely, spreading five or six feet each way, with its red berries now ripe."); September 26, 1859 ("I do not know any clusters more graceful and beautiful than these drooping cymes of scarlet or translucent cherry-colored elliptical berries"); October 15, 1859 ("Solanum Dulcamara berries linger over water but mostly are shrivelled")

Aster linariifolius. See July 29, 1852 ("That common rigid narrow-leaved faint-purplish aster in dry woods by shrub oak path, Aster linariifolius of Bigelow, but it is not savory leaved. I do not find it in Gray. "); see also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Savory-leaved aster

July 28. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 28

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

The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis at Azalea Brook.

July 12. 

White vervain. 

Checkerberry, maybe some days. 

Spikenard, not quite yet. 

The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis at Azalea Brook will soon flower. Either Gymnadenia tridentata or Platanthera flava.

Platanthera clavellata

Circæa alpina (?) there, but nearly eighteen inches high. 

Lycopus Virginicus, not open in shade; probably in a day or two. 

Wood horse-tail very large and handsome there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 12, 1853

White vervain. See July 12, 1856 (“White vervain.”) See also July 28, 1853 ("Saw lower leaves of the white vervain turned a reddish lake or claret."); August 6, 1853 ("lower leaves of some catnip and a white vervain have turned. "); August 29, 1856 ("An apparent white vervain with bluish flowers, as blue as bluets even or more so.")

The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis : Platanthera clavellata (Small Green Wood Orchid) aka Gymnadeniopsis clavellata, Habenaria clavellata , Gymnadenia tridentata (Green Woodland Orchid, Club-spur Orchid, Little Club Spur Bog Orchid). See August 14, 1856 ("Gymnadenia nearer the brook, how long?") Compare the TUBERCLED ORCHIS June 18, 1854 ("Platanthera flava at the Harrington Bathing - Place, possibly yesterday , — an unimportant yellowish - green spike of flowers."); June 21, 1852 ("The dwarf orchis Platanthera flava (Gray) at the bathing-place in Hubbard's meadow, not remarkable.")

Checkerberry, maybe some days. See July 16, 1856 (“Checkerberry, a day or two”). Note: “checkerberry" is another name for American wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens).See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: Checkerberry.

July 12. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, July 12

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

White vervain with bluish flowers

August 29

Heavy rain in the night and this forenoon. 

P. M. — To J. Farmer's by river. 

The Helianthus decapetalus, apparently a variety, with eight petals, about three feet high, leaves petioled, but not wing-petioled, and broader-leaved than that of August 12th, quite ovate with a tapering point, with ciliate petioles, thin but quite rough beneath and above, stem purple and smoothish, Hosmer's bank, opposite Azalea Swamp. 

Fragrant everlasting in prime and very abundant, whitening Carter's pasture. 

Ribwort still. 

Verbena urticifolia - White Vervain

(Wikimedia)

An apparent white vervain with bluish flowers, as blue as bluets even or more so, roadside beyond Farmer's barn.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 29, 1856

The Helianthus decapetalus, broader-leaved than that of August 12th. See August 12, 1856 ("Am surprised to see still a third species or variety of helianthus . . . I cannot identify it."); August 29, 1858 ("The Assabet helianthus (apparently variety of decapetalus), well out some days at least.") See also August 11, 1856 ("A new sunflower at Wheeler's Bank, this side Corner Spring, which I will call the tall rough sunflower . . . It does not correspond exactly to any described.”);  August 11, 1858 (“See a small variety of helianthus growing with the divaricatus, on the north side of Peter’s path . . . apparently answers best to the H. tracheliifolius.”) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Helianthus

Fragrant everlasting in prime and very abundant. See August 10, 1856 ("Fragrant everlasting, maybe some days.”); August 11, 1858 (“I smell the fragrant everlasting concealed in the higher grass and weeds.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Aromatic Herbs

White vervain with bluish flowers. See July 28, 1853 ("Saw lower leaves of the white vervain turned a reddish lake or claret."); August 6, 1853 ("Lower leaves of some catnip and a white vervain have turned."); August 12, 1851 ("The nettle-leaved vervain (Verbena urticifolia) by roadside at Emerson’s."); August 31, 1851 ("The flowers of the nettle-leaved vervain are now near the ends of the spike, like the blue.")

An apparent white

vervain with bluish flowers

as blue as bluets.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  White vervain with bluish flowers

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-560829

Have I not commonly noticed them dead after rain?

July 12

P. M. — Down Turnpike to Red Lily Meadow. 

Hear the plaintive note of young bluebirds, a reviving and gleaming of their blue ray. 

In Moore's meadow by Turnpike, see the vetch in purple patches weighing down the grass, as if a purple tinge were reflected there. 

White vervain. Smooth sumach, apparently yesterday. Rue is beginning now to whiten the meadows on all hands. 

The Ranunculus aquatilis appears to be about done, though it may have been submerged by the rain of yesterday. I see hardly one freshly open, and it  quite moist and lowering yet. 

By the myosotis ditch there, is an abundance of Galium trifidum (apparently obtusum or latifolium, in press). It is densely massed and quite prickly, with three corolla-lobes. As yet I think I have observed only two varieties of G. trifidum, smooth and rough. 

Lactuca sanguinea, some time, with dark-purple stem, widely branched. Pycnanthemum muticum and the narrow-leaved, not long.

short tail shrew dead in the trail

(avesong September 17, 2023)

In the still wet road on the hill, just beyond Lincoln bound, a short-tailed shrew (Sorex brevicaudus of Say), dead after the rain. I have found them thus three or four times before. 

It is 4 1/2 inches long; tail 1+; head and snout, 1+. Roundish body. Lead-color above, somewhat lighter beneath, with a long snout, 3/8 inch beyond lower jaw, incisors black, delicate light-colored (almost silvery) mustachial bristles, and also from lower lip; nose emarginate; nails long and slender, a purple bar across each; ears white and concealed in the fur; the nostrils plainly perforated, though Emmons says that in the specimens of Sorex he had seen he could detect no perforations with a microscope. It has a peculiar but not very strong muskiness. 

There was an insect-wing in its mouth. Its numerous teeth distinct. 

Have I not commonly noticed them dead after rain? I am surprised to read in Emmons that it was first observed in Missouri, and that he has "not been able to meet with it" and doubts its existence in the State; retains it on the authority of former catalogues; says it nests on the surface and is familiar with water. 

In spirits. [Given to Agassiz]

Red lilies in prime, single upright fiery flowers, their throats how splendidly and variously spotted, hardly two of quite the same hue and not two spotted alike, —leopard-spotted, — averaging a foot or more in height, amid the huckleberry and lambkill, etc., in the moist, meadowy pasture. 

Apparently a bluebird's egg in a woodpecker's hole in an apple tree, second brood, just laid. In collection. 

Parsnip at Bent's orchard; how long? Also on July 5th, almost out. Agrimony well out. Chestnut in prime. 

See Lysimachia quadrifolia with from three to five (or six?) leaves in a whorl. 

Iberis umbellata, candytuft, roadside, Turtle's, naturalized; how long? New plant.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 12, 1856

Hear the plaintive note of young bluebirds. See June 13, 1852 ("I hear the feeble plaintive note of young bluebirds, just trying their wings or getting used to them."); June 13, 1858 ("I hear the peculiar notes of young bluebirds that have flown") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Young Birds

A short-tailed shrew dead after the rain. I have found them thus three or four times before. See May 1, 1857 ("Apparently a skunk has picked up what I took to be the dead shrew in the Goose Pond Path."); July 31, 1856 ("Another short-tailed shrew dead in the wood-path.")

Emmons doubts its existence in the State. See Ebenezer Emmons, Report on the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts 13 (1840) ("The Shrews are remarkable for their glandular apparatus, which gives them the strong musky odor . . . I have not been able to meet with it, and I have some doubts of the existence of this species Within the limits of this State . . . From the fact, that in the summer many are found dead without any external injury, it is supposed that an annual mortality prevails among them. It is suggested, however, that it may arise from a deficiency of food produced in a dry season by the escape of worms on which they feed.")

A bluebird's egg in a woodpecker's hole in an apple tree. See June 23, 1856 ("White eggs taken from a hole in an apple tree eight feet from ground . . .  I saw a blue feather in it and apparently a bluebird’s nest. Were not these the eggs of a downy woodpecker laid in a bluebird’s nest?")

July 12. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 12

In the still wet road

an insect wing in its mouth

a short-tail shrew dead.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Dead after rain

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-560712

A season of fruits and berries. Nature is now a Bacchanal

August 6. 

More dog-days. The sun, now at 9 a. m., has not yet burst through the mists. It has been warmer weather for a week than for at least three weeks before, — nights when all windows were left open, though not so warm as in June. This morning a very heavy fog. The sun has not risen clear or even handsomely for some time, nor have we had a good sunset. 

P. M. — To J. Farmer's Cliff.

I see the sunflower's broad disk now in gardens, probably a few days, — a true sun among flowers, monarch of August. Do not the flowers of August and September generally resemble suns and stars? 

— sunflowers and asters and the single flowers of the goldenrod. 

I once saw one as big as a milk-pan, in which a mouse had its nest. 

Already I notice that the lower leaves of some catnip and a white vervain have turned. They are in fact matured, and high-colored or wine-colored like the fruits. It suggests that the whole plant tends toward an equal richness and maturity and to become one flower. It is the blush of its evening sky. I have seen some red leaves on the low choke-berry. 

Now begins the vintage of their juices. Nature is now a Bacchanal, drunk with the wines of a thousand plants and berries. 

The rudbeckia must have been out at least a week or more; half the buds have opened. 

Cranberries show red cheeks, and some are wholly red, like varnished cherry wood. 

Yesterday I ate early summer apples. 

The huckleberries were many of them burst open in consequence of the copious rains. 

And now it begins to rain again and compels us to return.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 6, 1853

Do not the flowers of August and September generally resemble suns and stars? See August 30, 1853 ("The sun has shone on the earth, and the goldenrod is his fruit. The stars, too, have shone on it, and the asters are their fruit.”)

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

 

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