Fall flowers

 October 9.

Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)

 

Touch-me-not, self-heal, Bidens cernua, ladies'-tresses, cerastium, dwarf tree-primrose, butter and-eggs (abundant), prenanthes, sium, silvery cinque-foil, mayweed.

My rainbow rush must be the Juncus militaris, not yet colored.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 9, 1852

Touch-me-not. See August 15, 1851 ("Impatiens, noli-me-tangere, or touch-me-not, with its dangling yellow pitchers or horns of plenty, which I have seen for a month by damp causeway thickets"); September 27, 1852 ("The touch-me-not seed-vessels go off like pistols, — shoot their seeds off like bullets. They explode in my hat.")

Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris; Gerard said "there is not a better wounde herbe in the world.'" See August 18, 1853 ("The sound of so many insects and the sight of so many flowers affect us so, — the creak of the cricket and the sight of the prunella and autumnal dandelion. They say, "For the night cometh in which no man may work."") See also June 9, 1853 ("Prunella out."); June 15 , 1851 ("The prunella too is in blossom "); July 2, 1852 ("The prunella has various tints in various lights, now blue, now lilac. As the twilight deepens into night, its color changes. It always suggests freshness and coolness, from the places where it grows"); July 16, 1851 ("The prunella sends back a blue ray from under my feet as I walk."); July 17, 1852 ("At evening the prunellas in the grass like the sky glow purple, which were blue all day. ")

Bidens cernua. See September 12, 1851 ("the Bidens cernua, nodding burr-marigold, with five petals"); September 12, 1859 ("The four kinds of bidens (frondosa, connata, cernua, and chrysanthemoides) abound now, . . . the third and fourth are conspicuous and interesting, expressing by their brilliant yellow the ripeness of the low grounds"); September 15, 1856 ("What I must call Bidens cernua, like a small chrysanthemoides, is bristly hairy, somewhat connate and apparently regularly toothed."); September 19, 1851 ("Large-flowered bidens ,or beggar-ticks, or bur-marigold, now abundant by riverside.")

Ladies'-tresses. See August 20, 1851 ("The neottia, or ladies'-tresses),

Cerastium. See October 4, 1853 ("The mouse-ear in the shade in the middle of the day, so hoary, looks as if the frost still lay on it. Well it wears the frost."); November 16, 1852 ("At Lee's Cliff the Cerastium viscosum.")

Silvery cinque-foil. See October 9, 1851 ("The hoary cinquefoil in blossom.") See also  October 2, 1857 ("There is a more or less general reddening of the leaves at this season, down to the cinquefoil and mouse-ear, sorrel and strawberry under our feet.")

Mayweed. See September 14, 1856 ("Mayweed! what a misnomer! Call it rut-weed rather."); October 16, 1856 ("I notice these flowers on the way by the roadside, which survive the frost, . . . mayweed, tall crowfoot, autumnal dandelion, yarrow, ...”); October 20, 1852 ("Canada snapdragon, tansy, white goldenrod, blue-stemmed goldenrod. Aster undulatus, autumnal dandelion, tall buttercup, yarrow, mayweed. ")

My rainbow rush must be the Juncus militaris. See August 30, 1858 ("The Juncus militaris has been long out of bloom. . . .This is my rainbow rush."); 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.")

The water is frozen in the pitcher-plant leaf.

November 16. 

9 a. m. — Sail up river to Lee's Bridge. 

Colder weather and very windy, but still no snow. A very little ice along the edges of the river, which does not all melt before night. 

Muskrat-houses completed. Interesting objects looking down a river-reach at this season, and our river should not be represented without one or two of these cones. They are quite conspicuous half a mile distant, and are of too much importance to be omitted in the river landscape. 

I still see the drowned white lily pads showing their red sides. 

On the meadow side the water is very much soiled by the dashing of the waves. 

I see one duck. 

The pines on shore look very cold, reflecting a silvery light. 

The waves run high, with white caps, and communicate a pleasant motion to the boat. 

At Lee's Cliff the Cerastium viscosum. 

We sailed up Well Meadow Brook. The water is singularly grayey, clear and cold. The bottom of the brook showing great nuphar roots, like its ribs, with some budding leaves. 

Returning, landed at Holden's Spruce Swamp. 

The water is frozen in the pitcher-plant leaf.

The swamp-pink and blueberry buds attract.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 16, 1852

Muskrat-houses completed.See  October 16, 1859 (“When I get to Willow Bay I see the new musquash-houses erected, conspicuous on the now nearly leafless shores. To me this is an important and suggestive sight, as, perchance, in some countries new haystacks in the yards; as to the Esquimaux the erection of winter houses.”); November 11, 1855 ("The bricks of which the muskrat builds his house are little masses or wads of the dead weedy rubbish on the muddy bottom, which it probably takes up with its mouth. It consists of various kinds of weeds, now agglutinated together by the slime and dried confervae threads, utricularia, hornwort, etc., — a streaming, tuft-like wad. The building of these cabins appears to be coincident with the commencement of their clam diet, for now their vegetable food, excepting roots, is cut off.”)

The pines on shore look very cold, reflecting a silvery light. See . November 11, 1851 (“There is a cold, silvery light on the white pines as I go through J.P. Brown's field near Jenny Dugan's. Every withered blade of grass and every dry weed, as well as pine-needle, reflects light”) December 3, 1856 (“The silvery needles of the pine straining the light.")

The water is frozen in the pitcher-plant leaf. See November 11, 1858 (“In the meadows the pitcher-plants are bright-red. ”) See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Purple Pitcher Plant

The swamp-pink and blueberry buds attract. See November 5, 1855 ("Swamp-pink buds now begin to show.”); November 6, 1853 (“The remarkable roundish, plump red buds of the high blueberry.”);  December 1, 1852 (“At this season I observe the form of the buds which are prepared for spring,- the large bright yellowish and reddish buds of the swamp-pink, the already downy ones of the Populus tremuloides and the willows, the red ones of the blueberry”)

Red lady’s-slippers over the red pine leaves on the forest floor,

June 5 

Thursday. P. M. — To Indian Ditch. 

Achillea Millefolium. Black cherry, apparently yesterday. 

The Muscicapa Cooperi sings pe pe pe’, sitting on the top of a pine, and shows white rump (?), etc., unlike kingbird. 

Return by J. Hosmer Desert. 

Everywhere now in dry pitch pine woods stand the red lady’s-slippers over the red pine leaves on the forest floor, rejoicing in June, with their two broad curving green leaves, —some even in swamps. Uphold their rich, striped red, drooping sack. 

This while rye begins to wave richly in the fields. 

A brown thrasher’s nest with four eggs considerably developed, under a small white pine on the old north edge of the desert, lined with root-fibres. The bird utters its peculiar tchuck near by. 

Pitch pine out, the first noticed on low land, maybe a day or two. Froth on pitch pine. 

A blue jay’s nest on a white pine, eight feet from ground, next to the stem, of twigs lined with root-fibres; three fresh eggs, dark dull greenish, with dusky spots equally distributed all over, in Hosmer (?) pines twenty seven paces east of wall and fifty-seven from factory road by wall. Jay screams as usual. Sat till I got within ten feet at first.

A cuckoo’s nest with three light bluish-green eggs partly developed, short with rounded ends, nearly of a size; in the thicket up railroad this side high wood, in a black cherry that had been lopped three feet from ground, amid the thick sprouts; a nest of nearly average depth (?), of twigs lined with green leaves, pine needles, etc., and edged with some dry, branchy weeds. The bird stole off silently at first. Five rods south of railroad. 

I must call that cerastium of May 22d C. nutans (?), at least for the present, though I do not see grooves in stem. Oakes, in his catalogue in Thompson’s “History of Vermont,” says it is not found in New England out of that State. The pods of the common one also turn upward. It is about four flowered; no petals; pods, which have formed in tumbler, more than twice but not thrice as long as calyx, bent down nearly at right angles with peduncles and then curving upward. The common cerastium is in tufts, spreading, a darker green and much larger, hairy but not glutinous, pods but little longer than calyx (as yet) and upright.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 5, 1856

The Muscicapa Cooperi sings pe pe pe’, sitting on the top of a pine. See May 15, 1855 ("I hear from the top of a pitch pine in the swamp that loud, clear, familiar whistle . . . I saw it dart out once, catch an insect, and return to its perch muscicapa-like. As near as I could see it had a white throat .”). See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Olive-sided flycatcher or pe-pe

Everywhere now in dry pitch pine woods stand the red lady’s-slippers. See  June 5, 1850 ("When the lady’s-slipper and the wild pink have come out in sunny places on the hillsides, then the summer is begun according to the clock of the seasons.") See also note to May 30, 1856 (“The lady’s-slipper in pitch pine wood-side near J. Hosmer’s Desert, probably about the 27th.”) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Lady Slipper

Froth on pitch pine. See June 4, 1854 ("I now notice froth on the pitch and white pines.”); June 15, 1851("A white froth drips from the pitch pines, just at the base of the new shoots. It has no taste.”)

A blue jay’s nest on a white pine, See June 8, 1855 ("A jay’s nest with three young half fledged in a white pine, six feet high. . . made of coarse sticks.”); June 10, 1859 ("A blue jay's nest about four feet up a birch, quite exposed beneath the leafy branches. “) 

I must call that cerastium of May 22d C. nutans See  May 6, 1856 ("Cerastium out there under the bank"); May 22, 1856 ("A little clammy hairy cerastium (?) (like a Cerastium viscosum, slender and erect), about three inches high, will open in a day or two on the rock near the bass."); May 31, 1856 ("That little cerastium on the rock at the Island, noticed the 22d . . . seems to be the C. nutans (?), from size, erectness, and form of pods and leaves.”) 

A brown thrasher’s nest with four eggs considerably developed, under a small white pine See June 6, 1857 ("A brown thrasher's nest, with two eggs, on ground, near lower lentago wall and toward Bittern Cliff. ")  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Brown Thrasher

Red lady’s-slippers, 

with two broad curving green leaves,

rejoicing in June.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Red lady’s-slippers

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-560605

The Telegraph says it Snowed in Bangor To-day.

May 31

P. M. — To Clintonia Swamp (Hubbard’s) Grove. 

A ground-bird’s nest (melodia or graminea), with six of those oblong narrow gray eggs speckled with much brown at end. When I looked again half an hour after, one egg was hatched. The bird would steal out through the grass when I came within a rod, and then, after running a rod or two, take to wing. 

May 31, 2016

Tied a string about a low pyrus a rod or so to right of entrance to Hubbard’s Pyrus Swamp and two feet west of a pitch pine stump, and pressed a twig of it.

Clintonia. 

Nuphar advena first noticed; may have been out some time in some places, but just out in river. 

Pink, common wild, maybe two or three days.

Sundown—To Hill and Island. 

Have noticed within a week, from time to time, the water-line on the bushes along the shore — the water going down — unusually distinct, for while the exposed parts have leaved out, the lower are quite bare and black. 

Hemlock and creeping juniper, where had not bloomed the 22d, are now entirely out of bloom on the hill. How short their flower lasts! 

Ranunculus Purshii, probably earlier in some places, but water high. 

That little cerastium on the rock at the Island, noticed the 22d, which probably opened about  that time, is now out of bloom. It is about three inches high and has long pods, more than twice the length of the calyx, which turn upward. I have seen no petals. It seems to be the C. nutans (?), from size, erectness, and form of pods and leaves. It has viscid hairs or with glands at end. 

The red oak is so forward, compared with the rest, that it is more difficult to get a sprig in flower small enough (its leaves) to press. 

As I return in the dusk, many nighthawks, with their great spotted wings, are circling low over the river, as the swallows were when I went out. They skim within a rod of me. After dusk these greater swallows come forth, and circle and play about over the water like those lesser ones, or perhaps making a larger circuit, also uttering a louder note. It would not be safe for such great birds to fly so near and familiarly by day. 

It has been very cold for two or three days, and to-night a frost is feared. The telegraph says it snowed in Bangor to-day. 

The hickory leaves are blackened by blowing in the cold wind.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 31, 1856

A ground-bird’s nest (melodia or graminea.), with six of those oblong narrow gray eggs speckled with much brown at end. See May 18, 1855 ("A bay-wing sparrow’s nest, four eggs (young half hatched) -- some black-spotted, others not”); May 27, 1856 ("Fringilla melodia’s nest in midst of swamp, with four eggs . . . with very dark blotches."); June 4, 1857 (“I scare up a bay-wing. She runs several rods close to the ground through the thin grass, and then lurks behind tussocks, etc. The nest has four eggs, dull pinkish-white with brown spots; nest low in ground, of stubble lined with white horse hair. ”). See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Song Sparrow (Fringilla melodia) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Bay-Wing [Vesper] Sparrow (Fringilla graminea)

Clintonia. See June 2, 1853 ("Clintonia borealis, a day or two. This is perhaps the most interesting and neatest of what I may call the liliaceous (?) plants we have. Its beauty at present consists chiefly in its commonly three very handsome, rich, clear dark-green leaves . . . arching over from a centre at the ground, sometimes very symmetrically disposed in a triangular fashion; and from their midst rises the scape [ a ] foot high, with one or more umbels of “green bell-shaped flowers,” yellowish- green, nodding or bent downward")

Nuphar advena first noticed . . . just out in river. See May 30, 1858 ("I saw the Nuphar advena above water and yellow in Shrewsbury the 23d.")

Pink, common wild, maybe two or three days. See May 29, 1852 (" Barberry in bloom, wild pinks, and blue-eyed grass."); June 5, 1850 ("The first of June, when the lady’s-slipper and the wild pink have come out in sunny places on the hillsides, then the summer is begun according to the clock of the seasons.”);  June 19, 1852 ("Is not this the carnival of the year, when the swamp rose and wild pink are in bloom,  the last stage before blueberries come?")

Ranunculus Purshii, probably earlier in some places, but water high. See May 26, 1855 ("The Ranunculus Purshii in that large pool in the Holden Swamp Woods makes quite a show at a little distance now."); May 28, 1858 ("The Ranunculus Purshii is now abundant and conspicuous in river."): June 6, 1857 ('The Ranunculus Purshii is in some places abundantly out now and quite showy. It must be our largest ranunculus (flower).”)

That little cerastium on the rock at the Island, noticed the 22d . . . seems to be the C. nutans [nodding chickweed]. See  May 6, 1856 ("Cerastium out there under the bank"); May 22, 1856 ("A little clammy hairy cerastium (?) (like a Cerastium viscosum, slender and erect), about three inches high, will open in a day or two on the rock near the bass."); June 5, 1856 ("I must call that cerastium of May 22d C. nutans (?), at least for the present, though . . .Thompson’s “History of Vermont,” says it is not found in New England out of that State.") See also  May 31, 1853 (" The fact that a rare and beautiful flower which we never saw, perhaps never heard of, for which therefore there was no place in our thoughts, may at length be found in our immediate neighborhood, is very suggestive.  The boundaries of the actual are no more fixed and rigid than the elasticity of our imaginations.")

[Thoreau's herbarium includes a physical specimen from "Island Rock” with the label “Cerastium nutans'’ in his own handwriting. See Richard J. Eaton,  A Flora of Concord, 114  ("Very rare. The only known specimen to have been collected in New England east of the Connecticut River except in Connecticut.")]

The red oak is so forward . . .it is more difficult to get a sprig in flower small enough (its leaves) to press. See May 18, 1851 ("The oak leaves of all colors are just expanding, and are more beautiful than most flowers");  May 20, 1852 ("The red oak leaves are very pretty and finely cut, about an inch and three quarters long. Like most young leaves, they are turned  back around the twig, parasol-like."); May 23, 1860 ("The quarter-grown red oak leaves between you and the sun, how yellow-green!")

As I return in the dusk, many nighthawks, with their great spotted wings, are circling low over the river, as the swallows were when I went out. See   June 5, 1854 ("Now, just before sundown, a nighthawk is circling, imp-like, with undulating, irregular flight over the sprout-land on the Cliff Hill, with an occasional squeak and showing the spots on his wings. He does not circle away from this place, and I associate him with two gray eggs somewhere on the ground beneath and a mate there sitting.") June 21, 1856 ("Nighthawks numerously squeak at 5 P. M. and boom  Saw them fly low and touch the water like swallows over Walden. ")

The telegraph says it snowed in Bangor to-day. See August 26, 1854 ("Hear by telegraph that it rains in Portland and New York."); See also November 13, 1851 ("The cattle-train came down last night from Vermont with snow nearly a foot thick upon it. It is as if, in the fall of the year, a swift traveller should come out of the north with snow upon his coat.")  

The hickory leaves are blackened by blowing in the cold wind. See May 31, 1858 ("There were severe frosts on the nights of the 28th and 29th, and now I see the hickories turned quite black")

May 31. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, May 31

Six narrow gray eggs speckled with brown at the end in a ground-bird’s nest.

That cerastium

on the rock at the Island . . .

another rare plant.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  The Telegraph says it Snowed in Bangor 

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-560531

Yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow.

May 22

P. M. —To Viola Muhlenbergii, which is abundantly out; how long? A small pale-blue flower growing in dense bunches, but in spots a little drier than the V. cucullata and blanda. 

Veronica peregrina, apparently several days. 

May 22, 2015

A yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow. 

Polygonatum pubescens at rock. 

Aralia nudicaulis, apparently a day or two where heat is reflected from the rock on Island. 

Choke cherry and crataegus there in a day or two. 

The Cornus florida does not bloom this year. 

Hemlock and creeping juniper, not quite yet. 

The red and cream-colored cone-shaped staminate buds of the black spruce will apparently shed pollen in one to three days? They are nearly half an inch long. 

I see beds of anemones amid or under clumps of hazels: a mass of their pretty leaves and flowers, five or six feet in diameter. 

I see a common Vaccinium vacillans (?),with a leaf much like that of the V. Pennsylvanicum, also the common V. vacillans with more rounded glaucous leaves. 

I noticed a cobweb the other day, between the thole-pins of my boat, which was perfectly black with those little fuzzy gnats which fly at that height and take shelter from wind in boats and the like. 

A little clammy hairy cerastium (?) (like a Cerastium viscosum, slender and erect), about three inches high, will open in a day or two on the rock near the bass.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 22, 1856

To Viola Muhlenbergii, which is abundantly out; how long? A small pale-blue flower growing in dense bunches, but in spots a little drier than the V. cucullata and blanda. See May 22, 1853 ("Found an abundance of the Viola Muhlenbergii (debilis of Bigelow), a stalked violet, pale blue and bearded.") See also May 5, 1859 ("Am surprised to find the Viola Muhlenbergii quite abundant beyond the bayberry and near the wall.”); May 12, 1858 ("Find the Viola Muhlenbergii abundantly out (how long?), in the meadow southwest of Farmer's Spring.”); May 18, 1857 (“Viola Muhlenbergii abundantly out, how long?”). May 29, 1856 ("What a flowery place, a vale of Enna, is that [Painted Cup] meadow! Painted Cup, Erigeron bellidifolius, Thalictrum dioicum, Viola Muhlenbergii, fringed polygala, buck-bean, pedicularis, orobanche, etc., etc. Where you find a rare flower, expect to find more rare ones”) And see A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Violets

Veronica peregrina, apparently several days.  See May 25, 1855 ("Veronica peregrina in Mackay’s strawberries, how long?"); May 5, 1859 ("Veronica peregrina, Pratt's garden.”)

A yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow. See May 5, 1859 (“Near the oak beyond Jarvis land, a yellow butterfly, — how hot! this meteor dancing through the air.”) See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Yellow Butterflies

Aralia nudicaulis, apparently a day or two. See May 25, 1855 ("Aralia nudicaulis, perhaps two days pollen.”); May 25, 1852 ("The sarsaparilla in bloom”).

The Cornus florida does not bloom this year. .See May 25, 1855 ("Cornus florida, no bloom. Was there year before last? Does it not flower every other year?”)

I see beds of anemones . . . a mass of their pretty leaves and flowers. See . April 28, 1856 ("Many Anemone nemorosa in full bloom at the further end of Yellow Thistle Meadow, in that warm nook by the brook, some probably a day or two there"); May 6, 1852 ("The first Anemone nemorosa, wind-flower or wood anemone, its petals more slightly slightly tinged with purple than the rue-leaved.") See also Within the circuit of this plodding life,

There enter moments of an azure hue,

Untarnished fair as is the violet

Or anemone, when the spring strews them

By some meandering rivulet . . .

A little clammy hairy cerastium (?). . . will open in a day or two on the rock. See May 31, 1856 ("That little cerastium on the rock at the Island, noticed the 22d, which probably opened about that time, is now out of bloom.")

May 22. See  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, May 22

Yellow butterfly 

over the middle of 

the flooded meadow.

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, 

Yellow butterfly over the middle of the flooded meadow

 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-560522

The horse-chestnut and mountain-ash leafing.

May 6. 

To Clamshell by river. 

Our earliest currant out. 

Oat spawn showing little pollywogs (?) in meadow water. 

The horse-chestnut and mountain-ash leafing.

Knawel out at Clamshell; how long? 

Cerastium out there under the bank. 

That early white birch there has about done running sap. 

Equisetum sylvaticum a day or two on the ditch bank there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 6, 1856

Our earliest currant out. See May 4, 1853 ("The currant in bloom"); May 4, 1860 ("Currant out a day or two at least."); May 9, 1854 ("Currant in garden, but ours may be a late kind."); May 9, 1855 ("The black currant will not bloom for five or six days.")  

Note: The "earlies currant" and the unqualified word "currant" in Thoreau's lexicon likely  refers to the commonly cultivated Red Currant (Ribes rubrum). The Currant family species in New England includes both currants and gooseberries:   

• Ribes americanum –Wild black currant f/k/a Ribes floridum. See May 8, 1853 ("The Ribes floridum, wild black currant, just begun")
• Ribes aureum – Golden currant 
• Ribes cynosbati –Prickly gooseberry. See  September 8, 1856 (" Prickly gooseberry, with its bur-like fruit") (Brattleboro)
• Ribes glandulosum Skunk currant, fetid currant f/k/a Ribes prostratum. See September 7, 1852 (“Wild currants (Ribes prostratum, with the berry the odor of skunk-cabbage, but a not quite disagreeable wild flavor.")
• Ribes hirtellum –  Hairy stem Gooseberry or Northern Gooseberry 
• Ribes lacustre –Prickly currant, swamp gooseberry, bristly black currant. See June 19, 1856 (at the Natural History rooms)("Ribes lacustre, or swamp gooseberry")
• Ribes missouriense –Missouri gooseberry or Missouri currant. See  May 5, 1855 ("Missouri currant look as if they would bloom to-morrow.”);
• Ribes nigrum – Black Currant. See May 18, 1856 (“R. W. E.’s black currant (which the wild Ribes floridum is said to be much like), maybe a day.”)
• Ribes rotundifolium –Appalachian gooseberry or round-leaved gooseberry
• Ribes rubrum  – garden red currant or red currant
• Ribes triste –swamp red currant or wild red currant
• Ribes uva-crispa – European gooseberry f/k/a Ribes grossularia

Thoreau recognized 6 kinds of currant: red currant, black currant, wild currant, wild black currant, swamp currant, and Missouri currant; and 2 kinds of gooseberry,  swamp gooseberry and prickly gooseberry. See May 5, 1855 ("Gooseberry, both kinds "); See also, e.g.; July 19, 1858 (Mt. Washington) (" At three miles, or limit of trees . . . Ribes lacustre, prostratum, and floridum(?)") 

Oat spawn showing little pollywogs. See May 4, 1858 (“What I have heretofore called the oat spawn, attached to old pontederia stems,  etc . . . is not black and white, like that of the Rana halecina, sylvaltica, and palustris, which I cannot distinguish from one another, but a pale brown or fawn-color . . . Iss it not that of the R. fontinalis?”);  May 8, 1858 (“I see a great deal of the oat spawn . . . It is over the coarse, weedy (pontederia and yellow lily stubble)”); May 11, 1855 (“See oat-seed spawn — a mass as big as fist —- on bottom; of brown jelly composed of smaller globules, each with a fish-like tadpole, color of a seed.”);  May 13, 1858 ("The large globular masses of oat spawn, often on the very top of the old pontederia stems and also on the shooting Equisetum limosum, of the same color with the weeds and bottom, look like a seedy fruit which is divested of its rind."); May 13, 1857 ("A large bunch of oat spawn in meadow water.“)

The horse-chestnut and mountain-ash leafing. See May 5, 1855) ("The trees and shrubs which I observe . . . in the order of their intensity and generalness: Gooseberry, both kinds  . . . Red currant, and probably black . . .  Some mountain-ash . . . Some horse-chestnut")

Knawel out at Clamshell; how long?  See May 5, 1860 ("Knawel some time."); May 6, 1853 ("Common knawel, apparently for some time") [Scleranthus annuus (German knotweed)]

Cerastium out there under the bank. See  May 13, 1860 ("At Clamshell. one cerastium flower quite done and dry."); See also  May 22, 1856 ("A little clammy hairy cerastium (?) ( like a Cerastium viscosum, slender and erect ), about three inches high, will open in a day or two on the rock near the"); May 31, 1856 ("That little cerastium on the rock at the Island, noticed the 22d, which probably opened about that time, is now out of bloom.")

That early white birch there has about done running sap. See April 23, 1856 ("The white birch sap flows yet from a stump cut last fall, and a few small bees, flies, etc., are attracted by it.");  April 26, 1856 ("The white birch at Clamshell, which I tapped long ago, still runs and is partly covered with a pink froth. "); April 27, 1856 ("The white birch which I tapped in V. palmata Swamp still runs; and the holes are full of, and the base of the tree covered with, a singular sour-tasted, rather hard-crusted white (not pink) froth, and a great many of those flat beetles (?), lightning-bug-like, and flies, etc.  are sucking it."); May 13, 1856 ("Where my sap has dried on the white birch bark it has now turned a bright light red. What a variety of colors it assumes!")

Equisetum sylvaticum  [Wood horsetail or Woodland horsetail] a day or two on the ditch bank there. See   May 6, 1853 ("Equisetum sylvaticum in front of Hosmer's Gorge. ");  May 6, 1855 ("Equisetum sylvaticum, probably yesterday or day before.”);  See also April 28, 1858 ("At Clamshell Ditch, one Equisetum sylvaticum will apparently open to-morrow. Strawberries are abundantly out.); May 10, 1857 (“This side Clamshell, strawberries and cinquefoil are abundant. Equisetum sylvaticum.”)