Leaves on the water.

October 19.

Paddle E. Hoar and Mrs. King up the North Branch.

A seed of wild oat left on. 

The leaves have fallen so plentifully that they quite conceal the water along the shore, and rustle pleasantly when the wave which the boat creates strikes them.

H.  D. Thoreau, Journal, October 19, 1853

A seed of wild oat left on. See June 3, 1853 (" Is that rank grass by the Red Bridge already between three and four feet high wild oats?"); August 15, 1858 ("Wild oats, apparently in prime. This is quite interesting and handsome, so tall and loose. The lower, spreading and loosely drooping, dangling or blown one side like a flag, staminate branches of its ample panicle are of a lively yellowish green, contrasting with the very distant upright pistillate branches, suggesting a spear with a small flag at the base of its head. It is our wild grain, unharvested") [Note: "Wild oat" here refers to Zizania aquatica (wild rice) not sessille bellwort. See Botanical Index to Thoreau's Journal and note to September 24, 1852 ("The zizania ripe, shining black, cylindrical kernels, five eighths of an inch long").See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Bellworts]

The leaves have fallen so plentifully that they quite conceal the water along the shore. See October 12, 1855 ("The leaves fallen last night now lie thick on the water next the shore, concealing it,"); October 13, 1860 ("Now, as soon as the frost strips the maples, and their leaves strew the swamp floor and conceal the pools, the note of the chickadee sounds cheerfully winteryish."); October 15, 1856 ("Large fleets of maple and other leaves are floating on its surface as I go up the Assabet."); October 17, 1856 ("Countless leafy skiffs are floating on pools and lakes and rivers and in the swamps and meadows, often concealing the water quite from foot and eye."); October 17, 1857 ("The swamp floor is covered with red maple leaves, many yellow with bright-scarlet spots or streaks. Small brooks are almost concealed by them."); October 17, 1858 ("They remind me of ditches in swamps, whose surfaces are often quite concealed by leaves now. The waves made by my boat cause them to rustle, ")