The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign some office to each day
which, summed up, would be the history of the year.
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852
Each humblest flower
marks some phase of human life
as the globe goes round.
When the flower’s fall
is symbol of my own change
the flower appears.
August 30, 2013
Fair weather, clear and rather cool. August 30, 1856
A cold white horizon sky in the north, forerunner of the fall of the year. August 30, 1856
Coolness and clarity go together. August 30, 1854
The clearness of the air makes it delicious to gaze in any direction. August 30, 1854
After so much dry and warm weather, cool weather has suddenly come, and this has produced these two larger fogs than for a long time. August 30, 1854
Another great fog this morning, which lasts till 8.30. August 30, 1854
I see with new pleasure to distant hillsides and farmhouses and a river-reach shining in the sun, and to the mountains in the horizon. August 30, 1854
I go along through J. Hosmer's meadow near the river, it is so dry. August 30, 1854
Rain again in the night, as well as most of yesterday, raising the river a second time. They say there has not been such a year as this for more than half a century, — for winter cold, summer heat, and rain. August 30, 1856
A cold storm still, — this the third day, — and a fire to keep warm by. This, methinks, is the most serious storm since spring. August 30, 1852
The river began to fall perhaps yesterday, after rising perhaps fourteen or fifteen inches. It is now about one foot higher than before the rain of the 25th. A rise of one foot only from low water gives an appearance of fullness to the stream, and though the meadows were dry before, it would now be difficult to work on them. August 30, 1859
The plants now decayed and decaying and withering are those early ones which grow in wet or shady places, as hellebore, skunk-cabbage, the two (and perhaps three) smilacinas, uvularias, polygonatum, medeola, Senecio aureus (except radical leaves), and many brakes and sarsaparillas, and how is it with trilliums and arums? August 30, 1859
Now is the season of rank weeds, as Polygonum Careyi, tall rough goldenrod, Ambrosia elatior, primrose, erechthites (some of this seven feet high), Bidens frondosa (also five feet high). August 30, 1859
Polygonum tenue at Bittern Cliff, how long? August 30, 1857
Polygonum amphibium var. aquaticum, which is rather rare. I have not seen it in flower. It is floating. August 30, 1852
Its broad heart-shaped leaves are purplish beneath, like white lily pads, heart-leaves, and water-targets. What is there in the water that colors them? August 30, 1852
The other variety, which [is] rough and upright, is more common, and its flowers very beautiful. August 30, 1852
The potamogetons, etc., are drowned, and you see a full rippling tide where was a sluggish and weedy stream but four or five days ago. Now, perhaps, will be the end of quite a number of plants which culminate in dry weather when the river is low, as some potamogetons, limnanthemum (in the river), etc. August 30, 1859
Sparganium and heart-leaf are washed up, and the first driftwood comes down; especially portions of bridges that have been re paired take their way slowly to the sea, if they are not saved by some thrifty boatman. August 30, 1859
Find at Dodd’s shore: Eleocharis obtusa, some time out of bloom (fresh still at Pratt’s Pool); also Juncus acumiuatus (?), just done (also apparently later and yet in bloom at Pout’s Nest); also what I called Juncus scirpoides, but which appears to be Juncus paradoxus, with seeds tailed at both ends, (it is fresher than what I have seen before, and smaller), not done. Some of it with few flowers! A terete leaf rises above the flower. It looks like a small bayonet rush. August 30, 1858
The Juncus militaris has been long out of bloom. The leaf is three feet long; the whole plant, four or five. It grows on edge of Grindstone Meadow and above. It would look more like a bayonet if the leaf were shorter than the flowering stem, which last is the bayonet part. This is my rainbow rush. August 30, 1858
All over Ammannia Shore and on bare spots in meadows generally, Fimbristylis autumnalis, apparently in prime; minute, two to five inches high, with aspect of F. capillaris. August 30, 1858
The river is fuller, with more current; a cooler wind blows; the reddish Panicum agrostoides stands cool along the banks. August 30, 1859
The great yellow flowers of the Bidens chrysanthemoides are drowned, and now I do not see to the bottom as I paddle along. August 30, 1859
Bidens connata abundant at Moore's Swamp, how long? August 30, 1856
Now that flowers are rarer, almost every one of whatever species has bees or butterflies upon it. August 30, 1859
The pasture thistle, though past its prime, is quite common, and almost every flower (i. e. thistle), wherever you meet with it, has one or more bumblebees on it, clambering over its mass of florets. One such bee which I disturb has much ado before he can rise from the grass and get under weigh, as if he were too heavily laden, and at last he flies but low. August 30, 1859
The erechthites down has begun to fly. August 30, 1859
The fall of each humblest flower marks the annual period of some phase of human life experience. August 30, 1851
Small botrychium, not long. August 30, 1857
The flower of Cicuta maculata smells like the leaves of the golden senecio. August 30, 1857
Collinsonia has been out apparently three or four days. August 30, 1857
The sarothra is now apparently in prime on the Great Fields, and comes near being open now, at 3 p. m. Bruised, it has the fragrance of sorrel and lemon, rather pungent or stinging, like a bee. August 30, 1856
Hypericum corymbosum lingers still, with perforatum. August 30, 1856
Blue-eyed grass still. August 30, 1854
Dogwood leaves have fairly begun to turn. August 30, 1854
A few small maples are scarlet along the meadow. August 30, 1854
We start when we think we are handling a worm, and open our hands quickly, and this I think is designed rather for the protection of the worm than of ourselves. August 30, 1859
Grapes are already ripe; I smell them first. August 30, 1853
August 30, 2015
I perceive in the Norway cinquefoil (Potentilla Norvegica), now nearly out of blossom, that the alternate five leaves of the calyx are closing over the seeds to protect them. There is one door closed, of the closing year.
I go along through J. Hosmer's meadow near the river, it is so dry. August 30, 1854
Rain again in the night, as well as most of yesterday, raising the river a second time. They say there has not been such a year as this for more than half a century, — for winter cold, summer heat, and rain. August 30, 1856
A cold storm still, — this the third day, — and a fire to keep warm by. This, methinks, is the most serious storm since spring. August 30, 1852
The river began to fall perhaps yesterday, after rising perhaps fourteen or fifteen inches. It is now about one foot higher than before the rain of the 25th. A rise of one foot only from low water gives an appearance of fullness to the stream, and though the meadows were dry before, it would now be difficult to work on them. August 30, 1859
The plants now decayed and decaying and withering are those early ones which grow in wet or shady places, as hellebore, skunk-cabbage, the two (and perhaps three) smilacinas, uvularias, polygonatum, medeola, Senecio aureus (except radical leaves), and many brakes and sarsaparillas, and how is it with trilliums and arums? August 30, 1859
Now is the season of rank weeds, as Polygonum Careyi, tall rough goldenrod, Ambrosia elatior, primrose, erechthites (some of this seven feet high), Bidens frondosa (also five feet high). August 30, 1859
Polygonum tenue at Bittern Cliff, how long? August 30, 1857
Polygonum amphibium var. aquaticum, which is rather rare. I have not seen it in flower. It is floating. August 30, 1852
Its broad heart-shaped leaves are purplish beneath, like white lily pads, heart-leaves, and water-targets. What is there in the water that colors them? August 30, 1852
The other variety, which [is] rough and upright, is more common, and its flowers very beautiful. August 30, 1852
The potamogetons, etc., are drowned, and you see a full rippling tide where was a sluggish and weedy stream but four or five days ago. Now, perhaps, will be the end of quite a number of plants which culminate in dry weather when the river is low, as some potamogetons, limnanthemum (in the river), etc. August 30, 1859
Sparganium and heart-leaf are washed up, and the first driftwood comes down; especially portions of bridges that have been re paired take their way slowly to the sea, if they are not saved by some thrifty boatman. August 30, 1859
Find at Dodd’s shore: Eleocharis obtusa, some time out of bloom (fresh still at Pratt’s Pool); also Juncus acumiuatus (?), just done (also apparently later and yet in bloom at Pout’s Nest); also what I called Juncus scirpoides, but which appears to be Juncus paradoxus, with seeds tailed at both ends, (it is fresher than what I have seen before, and smaller), not done. Some of it with few flowers! A terete leaf rises above the flower. It looks like a small bayonet rush. August 30, 1858
The Juncus militaris has been long out of bloom. The leaf is three feet long; the whole plant, four or five. It grows on edge of Grindstone Meadow and above. It would look more like a bayonet if the leaf were shorter than the flowering stem, which last is the bayonet part. This is my rainbow rush. August 30, 1858
All over Ammannia Shore and on bare spots in meadows generally, Fimbristylis autumnalis, apparently in prime; minute, two to five inches high, with aspect of F. capillaris. August 30, 1858
The river is fuller, with more current; a cooler wind blows; the reddish Panicum agrostoides stands cool along the banks. August 30, 1859
The great yellow flowers of the Bidens chrysanthemoides are drowned, and now I do not see to the bottom as I paddle along. August 30, 1859
Bidens connata abundant at Moore's Swamp, how long? August 30, 1856
Now that flowers are rarer, almost every one of whatever species has bees or butterflies upon it. August 30, 1859
The pasture thistle, though past its prime, is quite common, and almost every flower (i. e. thistle), wherever you meet with it, has one or more bumblebees on it, clambering over its mass of florets. One such bee which I disturb has much ado before he can rise from the grass and get under weigh, as if he were too heavily laden, and at last he flies but low. August 30, 1859
The erechthites down has begun to fly. August 30, 1859
Why so many asters and goldenrods now? August 30, 1853
The sun has shone on the earth, and the goldenrod is his fruit. The stars, too, have shone on it, and the asters are their fruit. August 30, 1853
The sun has shone on the earth, and the goldenrod is his fruit. The stars, too, have shone on it, and the asters are their fruit. August 30, 1853
The fall of each humblest flower marks the annual period of some phase of human life experience. August 30, 1851
I am quite bewildered by the beauty and variety of the asters, now in their prime here. August 30, 1853
The prevailing flowers, considering both conspicuousness and numbers, at present time, as I think now:
Acorns are not fallen yet. Some haws are ripe. August 30, 1859
The Aster puniceus is hardly yet in prime; its great umbel-shaped tops not yet fully out. Its leaves are pretty generally whitened with mildew and unsightly. Even the chelone, where prostrate, has put forth roots from its stem, near the top. August 30, 1856
The aspect of some of what I have called the swamp Solidago stricta there at present makes me doubt if it be not more than a variety, the leaves are so broad, smooth (i. e. uncurled or wrinkled), and thick, and some cauline ones so large, almost speciosa-like, to say nothing of size of rays. August 30, 1856
The Solidago odora grows abundantly behind the Minott house in Lincoln. I collect a large bundle of it. August 30, 1853
The prevailing flowers, considering both conspicuousness and numbers, at present time, as I think now:
- Solidagos, especially large three-ribbed, nemoralis, tall rough, etc.
- Asters, especially Tradescanti, puniceus, corymbosus, dumosus, Diplopappus umbellatus
- Tansy
- Helianthuses, as Helianthus decapetalus, divaricatus, annum, etc.
Acorns are not fallen yet. Some haws are ripe. August 30, 1859
The Aster puniceus is hardly yet in prime; its great umbel-shaped tops not yet fully out. Its leaves are pretty generally whitened with mildew and unsightly. Even the chelone, where prostrate, has put forth roots from its stem, near the top. August 30, 1856
The aspect of some of what I have called the swamp Solidago stricta there at present makes me doubt if it be not more than a variety, the leaves are so broad, smooth (i. e. uncurled or wrinkled), and thick, and some cauline ones so large, almost speciosa-like, to say nothing of size of rays. August 30, 1856
The Solidago odora grows abundantly behind the Minott house in Lincoln. I collect a large bundle of it. August 30, 1853
Small botrychium, not long. August 30, 1857
The flower of Cicuta maculata smells like the leaves of the golden senecio. August 30, 1857
Collinsonia has been out apparently three or four days. August 30, 1857
The sarothra is now apparently in prime on the Great Fields, and comes near being open now, at 3 p. m. Bruised, it has the fragrance of sorrel and lemon, rather pungent or stinging, like a bee. August 30, 1856
Hypericum corymbosum lingers still, with perforatum. August 30, 1856
Blue-eyed grass still. August 30, 1854
Dogwood leaves have fairly begun to turn. August 30, 1854
A few small maples are scarlet along the meadow. August 30, 1854
We start when we think we are handling a worm, and open our hands quickly, and this I think is designed rather for the protection of the worm than of ourselves. August 30, 1859
Grapes are already ripe; I smell them first. August 30, 1853
August 30, 2015
I perceive in the Norway cinquefoil (Potentilla Norvegica), now nearly out of blossom, that the alternate five leaves of the calyx are closing over the seeds to protect them. There is one door closed, of the closing year.
There is so much done toward closing up the year's accounts. August 30, 1851
Thus all the Norway cinquefoils in the world have curled back their calyx leaves, their warm cloaks, when now their flowering season was past, over their progeny, from the time they were created! It is as good as if I saw the great globe go round. August 30, 1851
I am not ashamed to be contemporary with the Norway cinquefoil. This plant acts not an obscure, but essential, part in the revolution of the seasons. May I perform my part as well! August 30, 1851
As I am now returning over Lily Bay, I hear behind me a singular loud stertorous sound which I thought might have been made by a cow out of order, twice sounded. Looking round, I saw a blue heron flying low, about forty rods distant, and have no doubt the sound was made by him. Probably this is the sound which Farmer hears. August 30, 1858
I have come out this afternoon a-cranberrying, chiefly to gather some of the small cranberry, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, . . .This was a small object, yet not to be postponed, on account of imminent frosts. August 30, 1856
I noticed also a few small peculiar-looking huckleberries hanging on bushes amid the sphagnum, and, tasting, perceived that they were hispid, a new kind to me. Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella August 30, 1856
The racemes long, with leaf-like bracts now turned conspicuously red. Has a small black hairy or hispid berry, shining but insipid and inedible, with a tough, hairy skin left in the mouth August 30, 1856
I seemed to have reached a new world, so wild a place that the very huckleberries grew hairy and were inedible. August 30, 1856
Am surprised to find on Minott's hard land, where he once raised potatoes, the hairy huckleberry, which before I had seen in swamps only. August 30, 1860
The berries are in longer racemes or clusters than any of our huckleberries. They are the prevailing berry all over this field. Are now in prime. August 30, 1860
The hairy huckleberry I think, grow here still because Minott is an old-fashioned man and has not scrubbed up and improved his land as many, or most, have. August 30, 1860
It is in a wilder and more primitive condition. August 30, 1860
Consider how remote and novel that swamp. Beneath it is a quaking bed of sphagnum, and in it grow Andromeda Polifolia, Kalmia glauca, menyanthes (or buck -bean), Gaylussacia dumosa, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, — plants which scarcely a citizen of Concord ever sees. August 30, 1856
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brain and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us, that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador any greater wildness than in some recess in Concord, i. e. than I import into it. August 30, 1856
The more thrilling, wonderful, divine objects I behold in a day, the more expanded and immortal I become. If a stone appeals to me and elevates me, tells me how many miles I have come, how many remain to travel, — and the more, the better, — reveals the future to me in some measure, it is a matter of private rejoicing. If it did the same service to all, it might well be a matter of public rejoicing. August 30, 1856
January 23, 1858 ("If I feel no softening toward the rocks, what do they signify?”)
February 20, 1857 ("If I were to discover that a certain kind of stone by the pond-shore was affected, say partially disintegrated, by a particular natural sound, as of a bird or insect, I see that one could not be completely described without describing the other. I am that rock by the pond-side.”)
March 31, 1853 ("It is affecting to see a distant mountain-top,. . . still as blue and ethereal to your eyes as is your memory of it.')
May 23, 1853 (" Every new flower that opens, no doubt, expresses a new mood of the human mind.”)
June 3, 1851 ("It was the golden senecio (Senecio aureus) which I plucked a week ago in a meadow in Wayland. . . . Its bruised stems enchanted me with their indescribable sweet odor, like I cannot think what.")
July 2, 1857 (" To Gowing's Swamp. . . .The Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella, not yet quite in prime. This is commonly an inconspicuous bush, eight to twelve inches high, half prostrate over the sphagnum in which it grows, together with the andromedas, European cranberry, etc., etc., but sometimes twenty inches high quite on the edge of the swamp. It has a very large and peculiar bell-shaped flower, with prominent ribs and a rosaceous tinge, and is not to be mistaken for the edible huckleberry or blueberry blossom. The flower deserves a more particular description than Gray gives it. But Bigelow says well of its corolla that it is "remarkable for its distinct, five angled form." Its segments are a little recurved. The calyx-segments are acute and pink at last; the racemes, elongated, about one inch long, one-sided; the corolla, narrowed at the mouth, but very wide above; the calyx, with its segments, pedicels, and the whole raceme (and indeed the leaves somewhat), glandular-hairy.")
July 8, 1857 (to Gowing's Swamp. The Gaylussacia dumosa is now in prime at least");
July 15, 1854 ("The stems and leaves of various asters and golden-rods, which ere long will reign along the way, begin to be conspicuous.")
July 18, 1854 ("Methinks the asters and goldenrods begin, like the early ripening leaves, with midsummer heats.")
July 19, 1851 ("Beyond the bridge there is a goldenrod partially blossomed. . . .Yesterday it was spring, and to-morrow it will be autumn.");
July 24, 1859 ("The hairy huckleberry still lingers in bloom, — a few of them.")
August 31, 1852 ("It is worth the while to have had a cloudy, even a stormy, day for an excursion, if only that you are out at the clearing up.")
August 31, 1853 ("The asters and goldenrods are now in their prime, I think.")
August 31, 1853 ("Bidens cernua well out, the flowering one.")
October 2, 1859 ("The Cicuta maculata, for instance, the concave umbel is so well spaced, the different um-bellets (?) like so many constellations or separate systems in the firmament.")
October 7, 1857 ("Crossing Depot Brook, I see many yellow butterflies fluttering about the Aster puniceus, still abundantly in bloom there.”)
October 8, 1856 ("The following is the condition of the asters and goldenrods")
October 9, 1853 ("My rainbow rush must be the Juncus militaris.")
November 5. 1855 ("Crossing the Depot Field Brook, I observe the downy, fuzzy globular tops of the Aster puniceus. They are slightly tinged with yellow, compared with the hoary gray of the goldenrod.")
November 7, 1855 ("How completely crisp and shrivelled the leaves and stems of the Polygonum amphibium var. terrestre, still standing above the water and grass!")
November 22, 1860 ("Simply to see to a distant horizon through a clear air, - the fine outline of a distant hill or a blue mountaintop through some new vista, - this is wealth enough for one afternoon.")
December 30, 1860 ("I do not know of a spot where any shrub grows in this neighborhood but one or another species or variety of the Gaylussacia may also grow there. . . .One variety is peculiar to quaking bogs where there can hardly be said to be any soil beneath, not to mention another but unpalatable species, the hairy huckleberry, which is found in bogs.")
Thus all the Norway cinquefoils in the world have curled back their calyx leaves, their warm cloaks, when now their flowering season was past, over their progeny, from the time they were created! It is as good as if I saw the great globe go round. August 30, 1851
I am not ashamed to be contemporary with the Norway cinquefoil. This plant acts not an obscure, but essential, part in the revolution of the seasons. May I perform my part as well! August 30, 1851
As I am now returning over Lily Bay, I hear behind me a singular loud stertorous sound which I thought might have been made by a cow out of order, twice sounded. Looking round, I saw a blue heron flying low, about forty rods distant, and have no doubt the sound was made by him. Probably this is the sound which Farmer hears. August 30, 1858
I have come out this afternoon a-cranberrying, chiefly to gather some of the small cranberry, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, . . .This was a small object, yet not to be postponed, on account of imminent frosts. August 30, 1856
I noticed also a few small peculiar-looking huckleberries hanging on bushes amid the sphagnum, and, tasting, perceived that they were hispid, a new kind to me. Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella August 30, 1856
The racemes long, with leaf-like bracts now turned conspicuously red. Has a small black hairy or hispid berry, shining but insipid and inedible, with a tough, hairy skin left in the mouth August 30, 1856
I seemed to have reached a new world, so wild a place that the very huckleberries grew hairy and were inedible. August 30, 1856
Am surprised to find on Minott's hard land, where he once raised potatoes, the hairy huckleberry, which before I had seen in swamps only. August 30, 1860
The berries are in longer racemes or clusters than any of our huckleberries. They are the prevailing berry all over this field. Are now in prime. August 30, 1860
The hairy huckleberry I think, grow here still because Minott is an old-fashioned man and has not scrubbed up and improved his land as many, or most, have. August 30, 1860
It is in a wilder and more primitive condition. August 30, 1860
Consider how remote and novel that swamp. Beneath it is a quaking bed of sphagnum, and in it grow Andromeda Polifolia, Kalmia glauca, menyanthes (or buck -bean), Gaylussacia dumosa, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, — plants which scarcely a citizen of Concord ever sees. August 30, 1856
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brain and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us, that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador any greater wildness than in some recess in Concord, i. e. than I import into it. August 30, 1856
The more thrilling, wonderful, divine objects I behold in a day, the more expanded and immortal I become. If a stone appeals to me and elevates me, tells me how many miles I have come, how many remain to travel, — and the more, the better, — reveals the future to me in some measure, it is a matter of private rejoicing. If it did the same service to all, it might well be a matter of public rejoicing. August 30, 1856
I can be said to note the flower's fall only when I see in it the symbol of my own change. When I experience this, then the flower appears to me. August 30, 1851
*****
February 20, 1857 ("If I were to discover that a certain kind of stone by the pond-shore was affected, say partially disintegrated, by a particular natural sound, as of a bird or insect, I see that one could not be completely described without describing the other. I am that rock by the pond-side.”)
March 31, 1853 ("It is affecting to see a distant mountain-top,. . . still as blue and ethereal to your eyes as is your memory of it.')
May 23, 1853 (" Every new flower that opens, no doubt, expresses a new mood of the human mind.”)
June 3, 1851 ("It was the golden senecio (Senecio aureus) which I plucked a week ago in a meadow in Wayland. . . . Its bruised stems enchanted me with their indescribable sweet odor, like I cannot think what.")
June 6, 1851 ("Gathered to-night the Cicuta maculata.")
June 25, 1852 ("There is a flower for every mood of the mind.")
June 25, 1857 ("To Gowing's Swamp. . . . Gaylussacia dumosa apparently in a day or two.”):July 2, 1857 (" To Gowing's Swamp. . . .The Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella, not yet quite in prime. This is commonly an inconspicuous bush, eight to twelve inches high, half prostrate over the sphagnum in which it grows, together with the andromedas, European cranberry, etc., etc., but sometimes twenty inches high quite on the edge of the swamp. It has a very large and peculiar bell-shaped flower, with prominent ribs and a rosaceous tinge, and is not to be mistaken for the edible huckleberry or blueberry blossom. The flower deserves a more particular description than Gray gives it. But Bigelow says well of its corolla that it is "remarkable for its distinct, five angled form." Its segments are a little recurved. The calyx-segments are acute and pink at last; the racemes, elongated, about one inch long, one-sided; the corolla, narrowed at the mouth, but very wide above; the calyx, with its segments, pedicels, and the whole raceme (and indeed the leaves somewhat), glandular-hairy.")
July 8, 1857 (to Gowing's Swamp. The Gaylussacia dumosa is now in prime at least");
July 15, 1854 ("The stems and leaves of various asters and golden-rods, which ere long will reign along the way, begin to be conspicuous.")
July 18, 1854 ("Methinks the asters and goldenrods begin, like the early ripening leaves, with midsummer heats.")
July 19, 1851 ("Beyond the bridge there is a goldenrod partially blossomed. . . .Yesterday it was spring, and to-morrow it will be autumn.");
July 24, 1859 ("The hairy huckleberry still lingers in bloom, — a few of them.")
July 26, 1853 ("I mark again, about this time when the first asters open. . . This the afternoon of the year.")
July 28, 1852 ("Goldenrod and asters have fairly begun; there are several kinds of each out.")
July 28, 1852 ("Goldenrod and asters have fairly begun; there are several kinds of each out.")
August 2, 1853 ("John Legross brought me a quantity of red huckleberries yesterday. The less ripe are whitish. I suspect that these are the white huckleberries.");
August 3, 1856 ("At Bittern Cliff again lucky enough to find Polygonum tenue, apparently out but a short time, say one week at most. Have marked the spot . . .")
August 4 , 1856 ("and, rising above these, large blue and also shining black huckleberries (Gaylussacia resinosa) of various flavors and qualities")
August 5, 1857 ("To my surprise found on the dinner-table at Thatcher's the Vaccinium Oxycoccus.")
August 3, 1856 ("At Bittern Cliff again lucky enough to find Polygonum tenue, apparently out but a short time, say one week at most. Have marked the spot . . .")
August 4 , 1856 ("and, rising above these, large blue and also shining black huckleberries (Gaylussacia resinosa) of various flavors and qualities")
August 5, 1857 ("To my surprise found on the dinner-table at Thatcher's the Vaccinium Oxycoccus.")
August 5, 1856 ("Polygonum amphibium in water, slightly hairy, well out.")
August 6, 1853 ("Do not the flowers of August and September generally resemble suns and stars?”)
August 6, 1853 ("Do not the flowers of August and September generally resemble suns and stars?”)
August 7, 1853 ("[The poet] sees a flower or other object, and it is beautiful or affecting to him because it is a symbol of his thought.")
August 7, 1858 (" find huckleberries which are distinctly pear-shaped, all of them. These and also other roundish ones near by, and apparently huckleberries generally, are dotted or apparently dusted over with a yellow dust or meal, which looks as if it could be rubbed off. Through a glass it looks like a resin which has exuded.")
August 7, 1858 (" find huckleberries which are distinctly pear-shaped, all of them. These and also other roundish ones near by, and apparently huckleberries generally, are dotted or apparently dusted over with a yellow dust or meal, which looks as if it could be rubbed off. Through a glass it looks like a resin which has exuded.")
August 8, 1858 (I see [at Ledum swamp][ especially near the pool, tall and slender huckleberry bushes of a peculiar kind. Some are seven feet high. They are, for the most part, three or four feet high, very slender and drooping, bent like grass to one side. The berries are round and glossy-black, with resinous dots, as usual, and in flattish-topped racemes, sometimes ten or twelve in a raceme, but generally more scattered. Call it, perhaps, the tall swamp huckleberry."")
August 8, 1858 (“The Gaylussacia dumosa var. hiriella is the prevailing low shrub, perhaps. I See one ripe berry. This is the only inedible species of ' Vaccinieaz that I know in this town")
August 8, 1858 ("The peculiar plants of [Ledum] swamp are, then, as I remember, these nine: spruce, Andromeda Polifolia, Kalmia glauca, Ledum latifolium, Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, Platanthera blephari glottis, Scheuchzeria palustris, Eriophorum 'vaginatum.")
August 10, 1860 ("Juncus paradoxus, that large and late juncus (tailed), as in Hubbard's Close and on island")
August 11, 1852 ("The Collinsonia Canadensis just begun.")
August 11, 1856 ("Aster puniceus a day or more.")
August 12, 1856 (“The sarothra — as well as small hypericums generally — has a lemon scent.”)
August 13, 1854 ("Now the mountains are concealed by the dog-day haze”)
August 13, 1860 ("Some of the little cranberries at Gowing's Swamp appear to have been frost-bitten.")
August 15, 1853 ("Now it is cooler and beautifully clear at last after all these rains, and. . .I see a distinct, dark shade under the edge of the woods, the effect of the luxuriant foliage seen through the clear air.")
August 17, 1856 ("Saw again the red huckleberry. ... red with a white cheek, often slightly pear-shaped, semitransparent with a lustre, very finely and indistinctly white-dotted.. . .It might be called Gaylussacia resinosa var. erythrocarpa.")
August 19, 1853 ("After more rain, with wind in the night, it is now clearing up cool. There is a broad, clear crescent of blue in the west, slowly increasing, and an agreeable autumnal coolness")
August 19, 1854 (“There is such a haze we see not further than our Annursnack, which is blue as a mountain.”)
August 19, 1858 ("Large, handsome red spikes of the Polygonum amphibium are now generally conspicuous along the shore.")
August 19, 1852 ("The trillium berries, six-sided, one inch in diameter, like varnished and stained cherry wood, glossy red, crystalline and ingrained, concealed under its green leaves in shady swamps.")
August 19, 1856 ("The small hypericums have a peculiar smart, somewhat lemon-like fragrance, but bee-like. ")
August 20, 1853 ("This day, too, has that autumnal character. I am struck by the clearness and stillness of the air, ")
August 20, 1852 ("Bidens, either connata or cernua, by Moore's potato- field. ")
August 21, 1854 ("Trillium berries bright red.")
August 21, 1856 ("The prevailing solidagos now are, lst, stricta. . .; 2d, the three-ribbed, of apparently several varieties, which I have called arguta or gigantea (apparently truly the last); 3d, altissima, though commonly only a part of its panicles; 4th, nemoralis, just beginning generally to bloom. . . .The commonest asters now are, 1st, the Radula; 2d, dumosus; 3d, patens etc. )
August 21, 1853 ("The Viburnum Lentago berries are but just beginning to redden on one cheek.”);
August 22, 1854 (“The haze, accompanied by much wind, is so thick this forenoon that the sun is obscured as by a cloud. I see no rays of sunlight.. . . The haze is so thick that we can hardly see more than a mile.”)
August 23, 1854 (“I find a new cranberry on the sphagnum amid the A. calyculata, — V. Oxycoccus . . .It has small, now purplish-dotted fruit, flat on the sphagnum, some turned scarlet partly, on terminal peduncles, with slender, thread-like stems and small leaves strongly revolute on the edges.”);
August 23, 1857 ("To Conantum. . . .Collinsonia (very little left) not out")
August 23, 1853 ("How handsome now the cymes of Viburnum Lentago berries, flattish with red cheeks!”)
August 23, 1858 (“I see . . . in swamps, the withering and blackened skunk-cabbage and hellebore")
August 24, 1853 ("The goldenrods which I have observed in bloom this year .(1) stricta,(2) lanceolata,(3) arguta (?),(4) nemoralis etc. . . .The asters are about in this order:(1) Radula,(2) D. cornifolius (?), (3) A. corymbosus, etc.. ")
August 24, 1851 ("The autumnal flowers, — goldenrods, asters, and johnswort, — though they have made demonstrations, have not yet commenced to reign."):
August 24, 1856 ("Polygonum tenue abundant and in bloom, on side of Money-Diggers' Hill, especially at south base, near apple tree. ")
August 24, 1853 ("Goldenrods and asters")
August 24, 1859 ("Aster puniceus how long?")
August 11, 1852 ("The Collinsonia Canadensis just begun.")
August 11, 1856 ("Aster puniceus a day or more.")
August 12, 1856 (“The sarothra — as well as small hypericums generally — has a lemon scent.”)
August 13, 1854 ("Now the mountains are concealed by the dog-day haze”)
August 13, 1860 ("Some of the little cranberries at Gowing's Swamp appear to have been frost-bitten.")
August 15, 1853 ("Now it is cooler and beautifully clear at last after all these rains, and. . .I see a distinct, dark shade under the edge of the woods, the effect of the luxuriant foliage seen through the clear air.")
August 17, 1856 ("Saw again the red huckleberry. ... red with a white cheek, often slightly pear-shaped, semitransparent with a lustre, very finely and indistinctly white-dotted.. . .It might be called Gaylussacia resinosa var. erythrocarpa.")
August 19, 1853 ("After more rain, with wind in the night, it is now clearing up cool. There is a broad, clear crescent of blue in the west, slowly increasing, and an agreeable autumnal coolness")
August 19, 1854 (“There is such a haze we see not further than our Annursnack, which is blue as a mountain.”)
August 19, 1858 ("Large, handsome red spikes of the Polygonum amphibium are now generally conspicuous along the shore.")
August 19, 1852 ("The trillium berries, six-sided, one inch in diameter, like varnished and stained cherry wood, glossy red, crystalline and ingrained, concealed under its green leaves in shady swamps.")
August 19, 1856 ("The small hypericums have a peculiar smart, somewhat lemon-like fragrance, but bee-like. ")
August 20, 1853 ("This day, too, has that autumnal character. I am struck by the clearness and stillness of the air, ")
August 20, 1852 ("Bidens, either connata or cernua, by Moore's potato- field. ")
August 21, 1854 ("Trillium berries bright red.")
August 21, 1856 ("The prevailing solidagos now are, lst, stricta. . .; 2d, the three-ribbed, of apparently several varieties, which I have called arguta or gigantea (apparently truly the last); 3d, altissima, though commonly only a part of its panicles; 4th, nemoralis, just beginning generally to bloom. . . .The commonest asters now are, 1st, the Radula; 2d, dumosus; 3d, patens etc. )
August 21, 1853 ("The Viburnum Lentago berries are but just beginning to redden on one cheek.”);
August 22, 1854 (“The haze, accompanied by much wind, is so thick this forenoon that the sun is obscured as by a cloud. I see no rays of sunlight.. . . The haze is so thick that we can hardly see more than a mile.”)
August 23, 1854 (“I find a new cranberry on the sphagnum amid the A. calyculata, — V. Oxycoccus . . .It has small, now purplish-dotted fruit, flat on the sphagnum, some turned scarlet partly, on terminal peduncles, with slender, thread-like stems and small leaves strongly revolute on the edges.”);
August 23, 1857 ("To Conantum. . . .Collinsonia (very little left) not out")
August 23, 1853 ("How handsome now the cymes of Viburnum Lentago berries, flattish with red cheeks!”)
August 23, 1858 (“I see . . . in swamps, the withering and blackened skunk-cabbage and hellebore")
August 24, 1853 ("The goldenrods which I have observed in bloom this year .(1) stricta,(2) lanceolata,(3) arguta (?),(4) nemoralis etc. . . .The asters are about in this order:(1) Radula,(2) D. cornifolius (?), (3) A. corymbosus, etc.. ")
August 24, 1851 ("The autumnal flowers, — goldenrods, asters, and johnswort, — though they have made demonstrations, have not yet commenced to reign."):
August 24, 1856 ("Polygonum tenue abundant and in bloom, on side of Money-Diggers' Hill, especially at south base, near apple tree. ")
August 24, 1853 ("Goldenrods and asters")
August 24, 1859 ("Aster puniceus how long?")
August 25, 1852 ("The cricket sounds louder, preparatory to a cheerful storm! How grateful to our feelings is the approach of autumn! We have had no serious storm since spring.")
August 25, 1854 (“I think I never saw the haze so thick as now . . . The sun is shorn of his beams by the haze before 5 o'clock P.M., round and red, and is soon completely concealed, apparently by the haze alone.”)
August 25, 1859 ("When the leaves are rustling and glistening in the cooler breeze and clear air.")
August 25, 1854 (“I think I never saw the haze so thick as now . . . The sun is shorn of his beams by the haze before 5 o'clock P.M., round and red, and is soon completely concealed, apparently by the haze alone.”)
August 25, 1859 ("When the leaves are rustling and glistening in the cooler breeze and clear air.")
August 25, 1852 ("The fruit of the Viburnum Lentago is now very handsome, with its sessile cymes of large elliptical berries, green on one side and red with a purple bloom on the other or exposed side, not yet purple, blushing on one cheek.”)
August 26, 1856 ("Each humblest plant, or weed, as we call it, stands there to express some thought or mood of ours.")
August 27, 1854 (Some Viburnum Lentago berries, turned blue before fairly reddening.")
August 27, 1856 ("The Viburnum Lentago begin to show their handsome red cheeks, rather elliptic-shaped and mucronated, one cheek clear red with a purplish bloom, the other pale green, now. Among the handsomest of berries, one half inch long by three eighths by two eighths, being somewhat flattish");
August 27, 1859 ("The first notice I have that grapes are ripening is by the rich scent at evening from my own native vine against the house")
August 28, 1856 ("See the great oval masses of scarlet berries of the arum now in the meadows. Trillium fruit, long time.")
August 29, 1852 ("A warm rain-storm in the night, with wind, and to-day it continues.")
August 29, 1853 ("Walking down the street in the evening, I detect my neighbor’s ripening grapes by the scent twenty rods off.")
August 27, 1854 (Some Viburnum Lentago berries, turned blue before fairly reddening.")
August 27, 1856 ("The Viburnum Lentago begin to show their handsome red cheeks, rather elliptic-shaped and mucronated, one cheek clear red with a purplish bloom, the other pale green, now. Among the handsomest of berries, one half inch long by three eighths by two eighths, being somewhat flattish");
August 27, 1859 ("The first notice I have that grapes are ripening is by the rich scent at evening from my own native vine against the house")
August 28, 1856 ("See the great oval masses of scarlet berries of the arum now in the meadows. Trillium fruit, long time.")
August 29, 1852 ("A warm rain-storm in the night, with wind, and to-day it continues.")
August 29, 1853 ("Walking down the street in the evening, I detect my neighbor’s ripening grapes by the scent twenty rods off.")
August 29, 1858 ("He hears — heard a week ago — the sound of a bird flying over, like cra-a-ack, cr-r-r-a-k, only in the night, and thinks it may be a blue heron")
August 29, 1859 ("The very earliest ripe grapes begin to be scented in the cool nights.")
August 31, 1852 ("It is worth the while to have had a cloudy, even a stormy, day for an excursion, if only that you are out at the clearing up.")
August 31, 1853 ("The asters and goldenrods are now in their prime, I think.")
August 31, 1853 ("Bidens cernua well out, the flowering one.")
September 1, 1851 ("The fruit of the trilliums is very handsome.. . .a dense crowded cluster of many ovoid berries turning from green to scarlet or bright brick color.")
September 1, 1854 ("The Viburnum Lentago are just fairly begun to have purple cheeks.")
September 1, 1856 ("I think it stands about thus with asters and golden-rods now.”)
September 1, 1857 ("I have finally settled for myself the question of the two varieties of Polygonum amphibium. I think there are not even two varieties.")
September 1, 1857 ("I have finally settled for myself the question of the two varieties of Polygonum amphibium. I think there are not even two varieties.")
September 1, 1859 ("The scarlet fruit of the arum spots the swamp floor.")
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.”)
September 2, 1856 ("It commonly chances that I make my most interesting botanical discoveries when I am in a thrilled and expectant mood, perhaps wading in some remote swamp where I have just found something novel and feel more than usually remote from the town.")
September 2, 1859 ("The sarothra grows thickly, and is now abundantly in bloom")
September 3, 1853 ("Now is the season for those comparatively rare but beautiful wild berries which are not food for man. ")
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.")
September 3, 1859 ("A strong wind, which blows down much fruit. R. W. E. sits surrounded by choice windfall pears.")
September 2, 1856 ("It commonly chances that I make my most interesting botanical discoveries when I am in a thrilled and expectant mood, perhaps wading in some remote swamp where I have just found something novel and feel more than usually remote from the town.")
September 2, 1859 ("The sarothra grows thickly, and is now abundantly in bloom")
September 3, 1853 ("Now is the season for those comparatively rare but beautiful wild berries which are not food for man. ")
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.")
September 3, 1859 ("A strong wind, which blows down much fruit. R. W. E. sits surrounded by choice windfall pears.")
September 3, 1860 ("Here is a beautiful, and perhaps first decidedly autumnal, day, -- a cloudless sky, a clear air, with, maybe, veins of coolness.")
September 4, 1853 ("The fragrance of a grape-vine branch, with ripe grapes on it, which I have brought home, fills the whole house.")
September 4, 1857 ("Arum berries ripe.”)
September 4, 1859 ("Three kinds of thistles are commonly out now, — the pasture, lanceolate, and swamp, — and on them all you are pretty sure to see one or two humblebees.")
September 5, 1856 ("Will not the prime of goldenrods and asters be just before the first severe frosts ?")
September 4, 1859 ("Three kinds of thistles are commonly out now, — the pasture, lanceolate, and swamp, — and on them all you are pretty sure to see one or two humblebees.")
September 5, 1856 ("Will not the prime of goldenrods and asters be just before the first severe frosts ?")
September 6, 1854 ("The sarsaparilla leaves, green or reddish, are spotted with yellow eyes centred with reddish, or dull-reddish eyes with yellow iris. They have a very pretty effect held over the forest floor, beautiful in their decay.")
September 6, 1858 ("The hairy huckleberries are rather scarce and soft. They are insipid and leave a hairy skin in the month.")
September 7, 1851 ("My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know his lurking-places, to attend all the oratorios, the operas, in nature.")
September 8, 1854 ("The grapes would no doubt be riper a week hence, but I am compelled to go now before the vines are stripped. I partly smell them out.");
September 8, 1858 (“Gather half my grapes, which for some time have perfumed the house.”);
September 11, 1859 ("The clusters of the Viburnum Lentago berries, now in their prime, are exceedingly and peculiarly handsome, and edible withal.")
September 8, 1854 ("The grapes would no doubt be riper a week hence, but I am compelled to go now before the vines are stripped. I partly smell them out.");
September 8, 1858 (“Gather half my grapes, which for some time have perfumed the house.”);
September 11, 1859 ("The clusters of the Viburnum Lentago berries, now in their prime, are exceedingly and peculiarly handsome, and edible withal.")
September 11, 1859 ('September is the month when various small, and commonly inedible, berries in cymes and clusters hang over the roadsides and along the walls and fences, or spot the forest floor").;
September 4, 1856 ("Splendid scarlet arum berries there now in prime.”);
September 4, 1856 ("Splendid scarlet arum berries there now in prime.”);
September 12, 1851 ("How autumnal )is the scent of ripe grapes now by the roadside!")
September 12, 1851("in Baker's Meadow beyond Pine Hill. . . the Bidens cernua, nodding burr-marigold, with five petals")
September 12, 1851("in Baker's Meadow beyond Pine Hill. . . the Bidens cernua, nodding burr-marigold, with five petals")
September 12, 1859 ("The four kinds of bidens (frondosa, connata, cernua, and chrysanthemoides) abound now")
September 13, 1856 ("Up Assabet. Gather quite a parcel of grapes, quite ripe.. . . the best are more admirable for fragrance than for flavor. Depositing them in the bows of the boat, they fill all the air with their fragrance, as we row along against the wind, as if we were rowing through an endless vineyard in its maturity.")
September 13, 1856 ("The Viburnum Lentago, which I left not half turned red when I went up-country a week ago, are now quite black-purple and shrivelled like raisins on my table, and sweet to taste, though chiefly seed.");
September 15, 1856 ("What I must call Bidens cernua, like a small chrysanthemoides, is bristly hairy, somewhat connate and apparently regularly toothed")
September 18, 1856 ("I have seen no . . . Polygonum amphibium var. aquaticum . . .this year.")
September 18, 1858 ("The perfectly fresh spike of the Polygonum amphibium attracts every eye now. It is not past its prime. C. thinks it is exactly the color of some candy.")
September 18, 1859 ("How little observed are the fruits which we do not use!")
September 13, 1856 ("Up Assabet. Gather quite a parcel of grapes, quite ripe.. . . the best are more admirable for fragrance than for flavor. Depositing them in the bows of the boat, they fill all the air with their fragrance, as we row along against the wind, as if we were rowing through an endless vineyard in its maturity.")
September 13, 1856 ("The Viburnum Lentago, which I left not half turned red when I went up-country a week ago, are now quite black-purple and shrivelled like raisins on my table, and sweet to taste, though chiefly seed.");
September 15, 1856 ("What I must call Bidens cernua, like a small chrysanthemoides, is bristly hairy, somewhat connate and apparently regularly toothed")
September 18, 1856 ("I have seen no . . . Polygonum amphibium var. aquaticum . . .this year.")
September 18, 1858 ("The perfectly fresh spike of the Polygonum amphibium attracts every eye now. It is not past its prime. C. thinks it is exactly the color of some candy.")
September 18, 1859 ("How little observed are the fruits which we do not use!")
September 19, 1851 ("Large-flowered bidens, or beggar-ticks, or bur-marigold, now abundant by riverside.")
September 22, 1852 ("The Polygonum amphibium var. terrestre is a late flower, and now more common and the spikes larger, quite handsome and conspicuous, and more like a prince's-feather than any.")
September 23, 1853 ("I observe the rounded tops of the dogwood bushes, scarlet in the distance, on the edge of the meadow . . . more full and bright than any flower.");
September 24, 1856 ("Arum berries still fresh")
September 24, 1856 (“Methinks it stands thus with goldenrods and asters now”)
September 25, 1852 ("The scarlet of the dogwood is the most conspicuous and interesting of the autumnal colors at present.")
September 27, 1858 ("The P. amphibium spikes still in prime. ");
September 28, 1856 ("The arum berries are still fresh and abundant, perhaps in their prime. A large cluster is two and a half inches long by two wide and rather flattish. . . . These singular vermilion-colored berries, about a hundred of them, surmount a purple bag on a peduncle six or eight inches long.")
September 22, 1852 ("The Polygonum amphibium var. terrestre is a late flower, and now more common and the spikes larger, quite handsome and conspicuous, and more like a prince's-feather than any.")
September 23, 1853 ("I observe the rounded tops of the dogwood bushes, scarlet in the distance, on the edge of the meadow . . . more full and bright than any flower.");
September 24, 1856 ("Arum berries still fresh")
September 24, 1856 (“Methinks it stands thus with goldenrods and asters now”)
September 25, 1852 ("The scarlet of the dogwood is the most conspicuous and interesting of the autumnal colors at present.")
September 27, 1858 ("The P. amphibium spikes still in prime. ");
September 28, 1856 ("The arum berries are still fresh and abundant, perhaps in their prime. A large cluster is two and a half inches long by two wide and rather flattish. . . . These singular vermilion-colored berries, about a hundred of them, surmount a purple bag on a peduncle six or eight inches long.")
October 2, 1859 ("The Cicuta maculata, for instance, the concave umbel is so well spaced, the different um-bellets (?) like so many constellations or separate systems in the firmament.")
October 7, 1857 ("Crossing Depot Brook, I see many yellow butterflies fluttering about the Aster puniceus, still abundantly in bloom there.”)
October 8, 1856 ("The following is the condition of the asters and goldenrods")
October 9, 1853 ("My rainbow rush must be the Juncus militaris.")
October 9, 1853 ("I smell grapes, . . . their scent is very penetrating and memorable.")
October 12, 1856 ("It is interesting to see how some of the few flowers which still linger are frequented by bees and other insects. ")
October 16, 1858 ("I see some Polygonum amphibium, front-rank,")
October 27, 1858 ("Though a single stalk would not attract attention, when seen in the mass they have this singular effect. I call it, therefore, the rainbow rush. When, moreover, you see it reflected in the water, the effect is very much increased.")
October 12, 1856 ("It is interesting to see how some of the few flowers which still linger are frequented by bees and other insects. ")
October 16, 1858 ("I see some Polygonum amphibium, front-rank,")
October 27, 1858 ("Though a single stalk would not attract attention, when seen in the mass they have this singular effect. I call it, therefore, the rainbow rush. When, moreover, you see it reflected in the water, the effect is very much increased.")
November 5. 1855 ("Crossing the Depot Field Brook, I observe the downy, fuzzy globular tops of the Aster puniceus. They are slightly tinged with yellow, compared with the hoary gray of the goldenrod.")
November 7, 1855 ("How completely crisp and shrivelled the leaves and stems of the Polygonum amphibium var. terrestre, still standing above the water and grass!")
November 22, 1860 ("Simply to see to a distant horizon through a clear air, - the fine outline of a distant hill or a blue mountaintop through some new vista, - this is wealth enough for one afternoon.")
December 30, 1860 ("I do not know of a spot where any shrub grows in this neighborhood but one or another species or variety of the Gaylussacia may also grow there. . . .One variety is peculiar to quaking bogs where there can hardly be said to be any soil beneath, not to mention another but unpalatable species, the hairy huckleberry, which is found in bogs.")
If you make the least correct
observation of nature this year,
you will have occasion to repeat it
with illustrations the next,
and the season and life itself is prolonged.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 30
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 © 2009-2021
