A little bundle scents my pocket for many days.

August 13. 

Mikania scandens well out; was not out July 18th. How long since, then? Perhaps not far from 1st August. 

The Lactuca sanguinea (var.) was perhaps as early as the other. 

Rhexia, very common on those bare places on the river meadows from which the soil has been moved by the ice. 

Saw the head and neck of a great bittern projecting above the meadow-grass, exactly like the point of a stump, only I knew there could be no stump there. 

There are green lice now on the birches, but I notice no cotton on them. 

Pennyroyal abundant in bloom. I find it springing from the soil lodged on large rocks in sprout-lands, and gather a little bundle, which scents my pocket for many days. 

I hear that the Corallorhiza odontorhiza, coral-root, is out.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 13, 1852

Rhexia, very common on those bare places on the river meadows from which the soil has been moved by the ice. See July 18, 1852 ("The petals of the rhexia have a beautiful clear purple with a violet tinge."); August 1, 1856 ("Far in the broad wet meadows, on the hummocks and ridges, these bright beds of rhexia turn their faces to the heavens, seen only by the bitterns and other meadow birds that fly over.") 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.")

Saw the head and neck of a great bittern projecting above the meadow-grass, exactly like the point of a stump. See  August 5, 1854 (Near Lee's (returning), see a large bittern, pursued by small birds, alight on the shorn meadow near the pickerel-weeds, but, though I row to the spot, he effectually conceals himself.); ;August 31, 1855 ("Passed in boat within fifteen feet of a great bittern, standing perfectly still in the water by the riverside, with the point of its bill directly up, as if it knew that from the color of its throat, etc., it was much less likely to be detected in that position, near weeds.")

Pennyroyal abundant in bloom. I gather a little bundle, which scents my pocket for many days. See August 11, 1853 ("Evening draws on while I am gathering bundles of pennyroyal on the further Conantum height. I find it amid the stubble mixed with blue-curls and, as fast as I get my hand full, tie it into a fragrant bundle.”); August 13, 1856 ("Is there not now a prevalence of aromatic herbs in prime? — The polygala roots, blue-curls, wormwood, pennyroyal, Solidago odora, rough sunflowers, horse-mint, etc., etc. Does not the season require this tonic?"); August 26, 1856 ("I gather a bundle of pennyroyal; it grows largest and rankest high and close under these rocks, amid the loose stones.")

I hear that the Corallorhiza odontorhiza, coral-root, is out. Compare August 13, 1857 ("Corallorhiza multiflora . . . how long")

August 13. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, August 13.

A little bundle

of pennyroyal scents my

pocket for many days.

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 © 2009-2025

Robins fly in flocks.

August 27. 

P. M. — To Walden. 

Dog-day weather again to-day, of which we had had none since the 18th, — i. e. clouds without rain. 

Wild carrot on railroad, apparently in prime. 
Hieracium Canadense, apparently in prime, and perhaps H. scabrum.

Lactuca, apparently much past prime, or nearly done. 

The Nabalus albus has been out some ten days, but N. Fraseri at Walden road will not open, apparently, for some days yet. 

I see round-leaved cornel fruit on Heywood Peak, now half China-blue and half white, each berry. 

Rhus Toxicodendron there is half of it turned scarlet and yellow, as if we had had a severe drought, when it has been remarkably wet. It seems, then, that in such situations some plants will always assume this prematurely withered autumnal aspect. 

Orchis lacera, probably done some time. 

Robins fly in flocks. 

Apparently Juncus tenuis, some time out of bloom, by depot wood-piles, i. e. between south wood-shed and good apple tree; some fifteen inches high. More at my boat’s shore.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 27, 1858

N. Fraseri at Walden road will not open, apparently, for some days yet. See September 13, 1857 (“Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant, ”); September 23, 1857 (“Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods.”)

Cornel fruit on Heywood Peak, now half China-blue and half white, each berry. See August 28, 1856 ("The bright china-colored blue berries of the Cornus sericea begin to show themselves along the river. .”)

Rhus Toxicodendron there is half of it turned scarlet and yellow, as if we had had a severe drought.  See September 30, 1857 (“Rhus Toxicodendron turned yellow and red, handsomely dotted with brown.”)

Orchis lacera, probably done some time. See July 13, 1856 ("Orchis lacera, apparently several days, lower part of spike, willow-row, Hubbard side, opposite Wheildon's land")

Have I not commonly noticed them dead after rain?

July 12.

P. M. — Down Turnpike to Red Lily Meadow. 

Hear the plaintive note of young bluebirds, a reviving and gleaming of their blue ray. 

In Moore's meadow by Turnpike, see the vetch in purple patches weighing down the grass, as if a purple tinge were reflected there. 

White vervain. Smooth sumach, apparently yesterday. Rue is beginning now to whiten the meadows on all hands. 

The Ranunculus aquatilis appears to be about done, though it may have been submerged by the rain of yesterday. I see hardly one freshly open, and it  quite moist and lowering yet. 

By the myosotis ditch there, is an abundance of Galium trifidum (apparently obtusum or latifolium, in press). It is densely massed and quite prickly, with three corolla-lobes. As yet I think I have observed only two varieties of G. trifidum, smooth and rough. 

Lactuca sanguinea, some time, with dark-purple stem, widely branched. Pycnanthemum muticum and the narrow-leaved, not long.

(short tail shrew dead in the trail

avesong September 17, 2023)

In the still wet road on the hill, just beyond Lincoln bound, a short-tailed shrew (Sorex brevicaudus of Say), dead after the rain. I have found them thus three or four times before. It is 4 1/2 inches long; tail 1 +; head and snout, 1 +. Roundish body. Lead-color above, somewhat lighter beneath, with a long snout, 3/8  inch beyond lower jaw, incisors black, delicate light-colored (almost silvery) mustachial bristles, and also from lower lip; nose emarginate; nails long and slender, a purple bar across each; ears white and concealed in the fur; the nostrils plainly perforated, though Emmons says that in the specimens of Sorex he had seen he could detect no perforations with a microscope. It has a peculiar but not very strong muskiness. There was an insect-wing in its mouth. Its numerous teeth distinct. 

Have I not commonly noticed them dead after rain? I am surprised to read in Emmons that it was first observed in Missouri, and that he has "not been able to meet with it" and doubts its existence in the State; retains it on the authority of former catalogues; says it nests on the surface and is familiar with water. 

In spirits. [Given to Agassiz]

Red lilies in prime, single upright fiery flowers, their throats how splendidly and variously spotted, hardly two of quite the same hue and not two spotted alike, —leopard-spotted, — averaging a foot or more in height, amid the huckleberry and lambkill, etc., in the moist, meadowy pasture. 

Apparently a bluebird's egg in a woodpecker's hole in an apple tree, second brood, just laid. In collection. 

Parsnip at Bent's orchard; how long? Also on July 5th, almost out. Agrimony well out. Chestnut in prime. 

See Lysimachia quadrifolia with from three to five (or six?) leaves in a whorl. 

Iberis umbellata, candytuft, roadside, Turtle's, naturalized; how long? New plant.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 12, 1856

A short-tailed shrew dead after the rain. I have found them thus three or four times before. See May 1, 1857 ("Apparently a skunk has picked up what I took to be the dead shrew in the Goose Pond Path."); July 31, 1856 ("Another short-tailed shrew dead in the wood-path.")

Emmons doubts its existence in the State.. See Ebenezer Emmons, Report on the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts 13 (1840) ("The Shrews are remarkable for their glandular apparatus, which gives them the strong musky odor . . . I have not been able to meet with it, and I have some doubts of the existence of this species Within the limits of this State.. . . From the fact, that in the summer many are found dead without any external injury, it is supposed that an annual mortality prevails among them. It is suggested, however, that it may arise from a deficiency of food produced in a dry season by the escape of worms on which they feed, . . .In the specimens of Sorex which have fallen under my observation, I have not been able to discover, even with the microscope, any nostrils, the termination, or the extremity, of the nose being apparently an imperforate membrane.")

July 12. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, July 12

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