It is a cool seat under the witch-hazel in full bloom, which has lost its leaves!

October 11. 

P. M. — To Conantum. 

The autumnal tints have not been so bright as usual this year, but why it is hard to say. [?? Perhaps they were later (?).]

The summer has been peculiarly cool, as well as wet, and it may be that the leaves have been the more inclined to decay before coming to maturity. Also, apparently, many leaves are killed by the mere frosts before ripening, the locust for instance, — and the frost came early this year, — just as melons and squashes before they have turned yellow; i.e. the leaves fall while they are still green. 

I observe the small cornel or bunch-berry conspicuously green now, like wintergreen and evergreen in the woods, amid the changed or withered foliage of the forest floor. Yet I have seen it purple (?) in the winter; me thinks. 

See a small flock of cowbirds (?), with at any rate conspicuously drab head and shoulders, — the rest black. 

What were those slender sparrow-like birds which went off singly from the sides of Conantum hills, with a sharp chit chit, a peculiar note, flying somewhat like a goldfinch but not quite so ricochet? They are quite shy.

Witch-hazel, grape, smooth sumach, and common hazel are partly fallen, — some of the first-named wholly, — yet full of bloom. It is a cool seat under the witch-hazel in full bloom, which has lost its leaves! The leaves are greenish and brownish yellow. 

Witch-hazel October 12, 2018

White pines are apparently ready to fall. Some are much paler brown than others. 

October 10, 2018

The small botrychium has shed pollen apparently within ten days. 

The Viburnum Lentago is generally a dull red on a green ground, but its leaves are yet quite fresh. 

See a white-throat sparrow.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 11, 1858

Witch-hazel in full bloom, which has lost its leaves!  See  October 4, 1858 ("Witch-hazel apparently at height of change, yellow below, green above, the yellow leaves by their color concealing the flowers. The flowers, too, are apparently in prime.") ; . October 20, 1852 ("The witch-hazel is bare of all but flowers")

White pines are apparently ready to fall.  See October 12, 1852 ("A new carpet of pine leaves is forming in the woods"); October 13, 1855 ("A thick carpet of white pine needles lies now lightly, half an inch or more in thickness, above the dark-reddish ones of last year"); October 14, 1856 ("Pine-needles, just fallen, now make a thick carpet ."); October 16, 1854 ("The pines, too, have fallen"). Also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The October Pine Fall ("There is a season when pine leaves are yellow, and when they are fallen.")

The Viburnum Lentago is generally a dull red on a green ground, but its leaves are yet quite fresh. See . October 23, 1853 ("Viburnum Lentago, with ripe berries and dull-glossy red leaves");. October 31, 1858 ("The Viburnum Lentago is about bare") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Viburnum lentago (nannyberry)