Now are the days to go a-berrying

July 18.

JULY 18, 2014

Sonchus oleraceus well in bloom. 

8.30 a. m. — To Sudbury meadows with W. E. C. by boat.

Hardhack in bloom perhaps a day or two. The button-bush beginning to open generally. The late, or river, rose spots the copses over the water, — a great ornament to the river's brink now. Three utricularias and perhaps the horned also common now. Rhexia, a day or two. The pads are now much eaten. 

Thoroughwort. Meadow haying has commenced. There is no pause between the English and meadow haying. There are thousands of yellow butterflies on the pontederia flowers, and of various colors on the button-bush. 

In the Sudbury meadows are dense fields of pipes three feet high bordering the river. The common large rush, flowering at top, makes black-looking squads there. The fields of pontederia are in some places four or five rods wide and almost endless, but, crossing from side to side on shore, are the open white umbels of the hemlock, and now the sium begins to show. 

These meadows, with their meandering stream, through whose weeds it is hard to push a boat, are very wild. 

The stake-driver and the virescens rise and go off with sluggish flight from time to time. 

What is that continual dry chucking sound heard about the pads? The darting of a fish, or of an insect? 

The heart-leaves are eaten and turned dark, but the less decayed part in the centres, still green, is of the form and appearance of the less cut leaves of the Ranunculus Purshii, — either leading to or following after that. As they decay, such a leaf as the less divided ones of the R. Purshii is left, or promises to be left, — is suggested. 

That smaller narrow-leaved polygonum which forms the first and lower rank in the river is in many places in blossom, rose-colored, whitish. 

What is that rather tall, coarse kind of aster, with a few broad rays, in the copse behind Bittern Cliff?  Is it Diplopappus cornifolius ? 

Now are the days to go a-berrying.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 18, 1853



Rhexia, a day or two. See July 18, 1852 ("The petals of the rhexia have a beautiful clear purple with a violet tinge."); and note to August 5, 1858 ("I cannot sufficiently admire the rhexia, one of the highest-colored purple flowers, but difficult to bring home in its perfection, with its fugacious petals.")

There are thousands of yellow butterflies on the pontederia flowers, See July 18, 1852(" The pontederias are alive with butterflies.")

The fields of pontederia are in some places four or five rods wide and almost endless. See July 18, 1852 ("The pontederias are now in their prime . . .They are very freshly blue. In the sun, when you are looking west, they are of a violaceous blue.")


Now are the days to go a-berrying. See July 18, 1854 ("As I go along the Joe Smith road, every bush and bramble bears its fruit; the sides of the road are a fruit garden; blackberries, huckleberries, thimble-berries, fresh and abundant, no signs of drought; all fruits in abundance; the earth teems")

July 18. See A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 18

A Book of 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