Grasshoppers trouble me by getting into my shoes.

September 4

P. M. — To Miles Swamp, Conantum. 

What are those small yellow birds with two white bars on wings, about the oak at Hubbard's Grove?

Aralia racemosa berries just ripe, at tall helianthus by bass beyond William Wheeler's; not edible. 

Indian hemp out of bloom. 

Butterflies in road a day or two. 

The crackling flight of grasshoppers. The grass also is all alive with them, and they trouble me by getting into my shoes, which are loose, and obliging me to empty them occasionally. 

Angelica archangelica

(wikipedia)

Measured an archangelica stem (now of course dry) in Corner Spring Swamp, eight feet eight inches high, and seven and a quarter inches in circumference at ground. It is a somewhat zigzag stem with few joints and a broad umbelliferous top, so that it makes a great show. One of those plants that have their fall early. 

There are many splendid scarlet arum berries there now in prime, forming a dense ovate head on a short peduncle; the individual berries of various sizes, between pear and mitre and club form, flattened against each other on a singular (now purple and white) core, which is hollow. What rank and venomous luxuriance in this swamp sprout-land! 

Viola pedata again. 

I see where squirrels have eaten green sweet viburnum berries on the wall, together with hazelnuts. The former, gathered red, turn dark purple and shrivelled, like raisins, in the house, and are edible, but chiefly seed. 

The fever-bush is conspicuously flower-budded. Even its spicy leaves have been cut by the tailor bee, and circular pieces taken out. He was, perhaps, attracted by its smoothness and soundness.             

Large puffballs, sometime.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 4, 1856

Aralia racemosa berries just ripe. . . not edible. See September 4, 1859 ("See a very large mass of spikenard berries fairly ripening, eighteen inches long.")

Indian hemp out of bloom. See note to September 2, 1856 ("Some years ago I sought for Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabinum) hereabouts in vain.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Dogsbane and Indian hemp

Butterflies in road a day or two. See September 3, 1854 (“I see some fleets of yellow butterflies in the damp road after the rain, as earlier.”) See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Yellow Butterflies

The crackling flight of grasshoppers . . . getting into my shoes. See August 21, 1852 ("The grass . . . is alive with grasshoppers."); August 21, 1854 ("Have noticed winged grasshoppers or locusts a week or more.");  September 7, 1858 ("It is an early September afternoon . . . the thousands of grasshoppers leaping before you reflect gleams of light.")

Measured an archangelica stem . . . eight feet eight inches high. See October 19, 1859 ("Find the seedling archangelica grown about two feet high and still quite green and growing, though the full-grown plants are long since dead.")

Splendid scarlet arum berries there now in prime. See September 4, 1853 ("Arum in prime."); September 4, 1857 ("Arum berries ripe.") See also September 2, 1853 ("The dense oval bunches of arum berries now startle the walker in swamps. They are a brilliant vermilion on a rich ground.”) and A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Arum Berries

Viola pedata again. See August 12, 1858 (“Saw a Viola pedata blooming again.”); October 22, 1859 (" In the wood-path below the Cliffs I see perfectly fresh and fair Viola pedata flowers . . . No flower by its second blooming more perfectly brings back the spring to us.”); October 23, 1853 ("The Viola pedata looking up from so low in the wood-path makes a singular impression."); 

I see where squirrels have eaten green sweet viburnum berries on the wall, together with hazelnuts. See September 3, 1858 ("How important the hazelnut to the ground squirrel! They grow along the walls where the squirrels have their homes.")

Green sweet viburnum berries . . . gathered red, turn dark purple.  See August 31, 1851 ("The handsome sweet viburnum berries, now red on one cheek.");  September 11, 1859 ("The clusters of the Viburnum Lentago berries, now in their prime, are exceedingly and peculiarly handsome, and edible withal . . .  Each berry in the cyme is now a fine, clear red on the exposed side and a distinct and clear green on the opposite side. Many are already purple, and they turn in your hat, but they are handsomest when thus red and green.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Viburnums

He was, perhaps, attracted by its smoothness and soundness.  See August 11, 1852 ("I am attracted by the clear dark-green leaves of the fever-bush.”); August 19, 1852 (The clear dark-green leaves of the fever-bush overhang the stream.”); September 6, 1859 ("The fever-bush leaves are remarkably round and entire yet, as if by their odor defended from insects")

September 4. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  September 4

Archangelica –

broad umbelliferous top

on a zigzag stem.

I see on the wall, 

squirrels have eaten green sweet 

viburnum berries.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  The crackling flight of grasshoppers

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-560904