Hemp still in blossom.

August 28. 

August 28, 2012

Now the red osier berries are very handsome along the river, overhanging the water, for the most part pale blue mixed with whitish, -- part of the pendant jewelry of the season. The berries of the alternate leaved cornel have dropped off mostly. The white-berried and red osier are in their prime. The other three kinds I have not seen. 

The viburnums, dentatum and nudum, are in their prime. The sweet viburnum not yet purple, and the maple-leaved still yellowish.

Hemp still in blossom.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 28, 1852

Now the red osier berries are very handsome along the river. . . See August 28, 1856 ("The bright china-colored blue berries of the Cornus sericea begin to show themselves along the river. .”)

The viburnums, dentatum and nudum, are in their prime. See August 28, 1856 (" Viburnum nudum berries are beginning; I already see a few shrivelled purple ones amid the light green. "); see also August 31, 1856 ("The Viburnum nudum berries are now in prime, a handsome rose-purple."); September 3, 1856 ("Gather four or five quarts of Viburnum nudum berries, now in their prime, attracted more by the beauty of the cymes than the flavor of the fruit. The berries, which are of various sizes and forms, — elliptical, oblong, or globular, — are in different stages of maturity on the same cyme, and so of different colors, — green or white, rose-colored, and dark purple or black, — i. e. three or four very distinct and marked colors, side by side. . . . Remarkable for passing through so many stages of color before they arrive at maturity.")