29 August 1853 – 4 September 1853

Tuesday. In low ground by Turnpike, a tall aster, A. longifolius (?), a day or two perhaps (salicifolius of Bigelow).1 Saw some by river in the afternoon with sharply serrate leaves. I think that the very small and dense-flowered white or whitish aster by roadsides and riversides, with pointed scales and disk turning purplish-brown, with very many flowers on the sides of the branches or branchlets, must be A. Tradescanti, sometimes quite high. I have thus far confounded it with what I have called the dumosus, and am not sure which is the earliest. The latter has larger flowers, not so crowded, one at the end of each branchlet, and the scales more abruptly pointed. 11 a. m. — Up river to Fair Haven. River one or two feet higher than in July. A very little wind from the south or southwest, but the water quite smooth at first. The river foliage is slightly crisped and imbrowned; I mean the black willows, button-bushes, and polygonums. The pads are for the most part eaten, decayed, and wasted away, — the white last the longest, — and the pontederias are already mostly dry and blackened. Only three or four white lilies and pontederia blossoms left. The Polygonum hydropiperoides and the narrow-leaved and mikania are the prevailing conspicuous flowers. Others are the trumpet-weed, yellow lilies (Kalmiana drowned), car- dinals (rather scarce), whorled utricularia, one purple one, Polygonum amphibium, etc. Bathed at Hubbard’s Bend. The water now cold and bracing, for it has con- trived to rain more or less all the month. Men raking cranberries in the meadows. Ivy berries are crisped and whitish on the rock at Bittern Cliff. The polygona- tum berries are green with a bluish bloom. Polygo- num dumetorum, apparently not long, very abundant in Tarbell’s cleared swamp by roadside, also by Peter’s Path, running up a tree eight or nine feet at this Cliff. Some of the river cornel berries are almost clear white on one side, the other china-blue. These and the Viburnum Lentago berries are now common and hand- some.

P. M.— To Moore’s Swamp.

Thursday. P. M. —'To Dugan Desert and Ministerial Swamp. The character of the past month, as I remember, has been, at first, very thick and sultry, dogdayish, the height of summer, and throughout very rainy, fol- lowed by crops of toadstools, and latterly, after the dog- days and most copious of the rains, autumnal, some- what cooler, with signs of decaying or ripening foliage. The month of green corn and melons and plums and the earliest apples, — and now peaches, —of rank weeds. As July, perchance, has its spring side, so August has its autumnal side. Was that the cackling of hens I heard, or the clicking of a very distant hand-organ ? Methinks the silvery cinquefoil is of late much more abundant. Is there any cessation to it? The green-briar berries begin to turn. Some large maples along the river are beginning to redden. I observe the stillness of the air and the smoothness of the water of late. The Hvera- cum Canadense is, methinks, the largest and hand- somest flower of its genus, large as the fall dandelion; the paniculatum the most delicate. To-day and yester- day quite warm, or hot, again. I am struck again and again by the richness of the meadow-beauty lingering, though it will last some time, in little dense purple patches by the sides of the mead- ows. It isso low it escapes the scythe. It is not so much distinct flowers (it is so low and dense), but a colored patch on the meadow. Yet how few observe it! How, in one sense, it is wasted! How little thought the mower or the cranberry-raker bestows on it! How few girls or boys come to see it! That small aster which I call A. Tradescantt, with crowded racemes, somewhat rolled or cylindrical to appearance, of small white flowers a third of an inch in diameter, with yellow disks turning reddish or pur- plish, is very pretty by the low roadsides, resounding with the hum of honey-bees; which is commonly despised for its smallness and commonness, —with crowded sys- tems of little suns. The Polygonum articulatum, ap- parently not for some time yet. The large epilobium still plenty in flower in Tarbell’s cleared swamp. Hazel bushes are now browned or yellowed along wall-sides in pastures; blackberry vines also are reddening. The Solidago nemoralis has commonly a long, sharply triangular head of small crowded flowers, evenly con- vex and often, if not commonly, recurved through a quarter of a circle, very handsome, solid-looking, re- curved golden spear-heads. But frequently it is more erect and branched. What is that alga-like plant covering the ground in Tarbell’s Swamp where lately burnt over, with close mats a rod in diameter, with fruit now two or three inches high, star-like, and little cups on the green thallus? ? I see now puffballs, now four inches through, turned dark from white, and ripe, fill the air with dust four or five feet high when I kick them. Saw a red squirrel cutting off white pine cones. He had strewn the ground with them, as yet untouched, under the tree. He has a chirrup exactly like a partridge. Have made out Aster multiflorus by roadside beyond Badger house; probably not long out. It is distinguished by its hoariness, and its large herbaceous spreading calyx-tips and its crowded, some- what rigid linear leaves, not tapering at base, low with a stout stem. A solidago by Marlborough road (S. puberula? or neglecta?), stricta-like, but panicle upright with short erectish racemes and lower leaves serrate, and five or six inches long; not long out. Should think it stricta if not for form of head; more like puberula, though this an imperfect one, in press.! IT think my white daisy, which is still quite fresh in some places, must be Erigeron strigosus, for the hairs are minute and appressed, though the rays are not twice as long as the calyx-scales. I have seen no pur- plish ones since spring. Aster undulatus begins to be common. Johnswort, the large and common, is about done. That is the common polypody whose single fronds, six or eight inches long, stand thick in moss on the shelving rock at the Island. The river nowadays is a permanent mirror stretch- ing without end through the meadows, and unfailingly when I look out my window across the dusty road, I see it at a distance with the herbage of its brink reflected in it. There it lies, a mirror uncracked, unsoiled. Plants or weeds very widely dispersed over the globe command a certain respect, like Sonchus ole- raceus, Oregon, New Zealand, Peru, Patagonia, etc.; Sicyos angulatus, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaiian Islands, etc.; Polygonum aviculare, Chenopodium album, and Polygonum Persicaria, Oregon and Egypt; also many others, according to Pickering. Pickering says that “the missionaries [at the Ha- waiian Islands]’ regarded as one main obstacle to improvement the extremely limited views of the natives in respect to style of living; ‘a little fish and a little poi, and they were content.’” But this is putting the cart before the horse, the real obstacle being their limited views in respect to the object of living. A philosopher has equally limited views in their sense, but then he is not content with material comforts, nor is it, perhaps, quite necessary that he first be glutted with them in order to become wise. “A na- tive, I was assured, ‘could be supported for less than two cents a day.’” (They had adopted the use of coin. ) The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom. In the case of the savage, the ac- companiment of simplicity is idleness with its attend- ant vices, but in the case of the philosopher, it is the highest employment and development. The fact for the savage, and for the mass of mankind, is that it is better to plant, weave, and build than do nothing or worse; but the fact for the philosopher, or a nation loving wisdom, is that it is most important to culti- vate the highest faculties and spend as little time as possible in planting, weaving, building, etc. It de- pends upon the height of your standard, and no doubt through manual labor as a police men are educated up to a certain level. ‘The simple style is bad for the savage because he does worse than to obtain the luxuries of life; it is good for the philosopher because he does better than to work for them. The question is whether you can bear freedom. At present the vast majority of men, whether black or white, require the discipline of labor which enslaves them for their good. If the Irishman did not shovel all day, he would get drunk and quarrel. But the philosopher does not re- quire the same discipline; if he shovelled all day, we should receive no elevating suggestions from him. What a literary fame is that of A’sop, — an Asopian fame! Pickering says: “A little to the west of Celebes, the literature of the Malay nation contains a trans- lation of the Fables of AXsop; who, according to the unsatisfactory accounts we have of him, was one of the earliest of the Greek writers. And further, the fact may be noted, that the Aisopian style of composi- tion is still in vogue at Madagascar. (See Ellis’s Mad- agascar.)”” A fame on its way round eastward with the Malay race to this western continent! A fame that travels round the world from west to east. P. gives California to the Malay race! There are two kinds of simplicity, — one that is akin to foolishness, the other to wisdom. The philosopher’s style of living is only outwardly simple, but inwardly complex. The savage’s style is both outwardly and inwardly simple. A simpleton can perform many mechanical labors, but is not capable of profound thought. It was their limited view, not in respect to style, but to the object of living. A man who has equally limited views with respect to the end of living will not be helped by the most complex and refined style of living. It is not the tub that makes Diogenes, the Jove-born, but Diogenes the tub.

P. M.— Collected and brought home in a pail of water this afternoon the following asters and diplopappi, going by Turnpike and Hubbard’s Close to Saw Mill Brook, and returning by Goose Pond: (1) A. Tradescanti, now well under way, most densely flowered, by low roadsides; (2) dumosus, perhaps the most prevalent of the small whitish ones, especially in wood-paths; (3) Diplopappus linariifolius, quite common; (4) A. patens, at present by far the most common of the decidedly purple asters, in dry ground; (5) undulatus, just begun to be common; (6) acumi- natus, low whorl, leafy, under a shady copse, where it appears to have been rayless, scarce; (7) longifolius, within a few days quite common in low ground; and (8) puniceus, very common in like places for a good while ; (9) Radula, now rather pale and stale in low grounds ; (10) miser, not as yet widely dispersed, but common in Saw Mill Brook Path; (11) Diplopappus umbellatus, abundant in low grounds; (12) levis, I did not chance to see in this walk, but found it common the next morning, on hillside by Moore’s Swamp. These twelve are all I know excepting corymbosus ' in Miles Swamp and elsewhere, long time, not common; also macrophyllus, long since, not blooming this year ; mul- tiflorus, in dry roadsides, not yet (at least) common ; and Diplopappus cornifolius, Bittern Cliff woods, prob- ably out of bloom. These twelve placed side by side, Sophia and I de- cided that, regarding only individual flowers, the hand- somest was — Ist, A. patens, deep bluish-purple (“deep blue- purple” are Gray’s very words), large! 2d, levis, bright lilac-purple, large. 3d, perhaps Radula, pale bluish-purple, turning white, large! | 4th, 5th, 6th. We could not easily decide between the next three, viz.:— D. linaritfolius, pale bluish-purple? A. puniceus, purplish-pink some large. and A. longifolius, pale purple But we thought afterward that perhaps the pun?- ceus should take precedence of the other two. 7th, undulatus, pale pinkish-purple, middle size. 8th, 9th, and 10th, dumosus, white or bluish, small; Tradescanti, white, very small; maser, white, very small; and I may add multiflorus, white (which we had not). 11th, Diplopappus umbellatus, white, middle size. 12th. The A. acuminatus was without rays, rather large when present. | The first (patens) has broader rays than the second, paler within toward the large handsome yellow disk. Its rough leaves are not so handsome. The levis is more open and slender-rayed than the last, with a rather smaller disk, but, including its stem and leaves, it is altogether the most delicate and graceful, and I should incline to put it before the last. The Radula has a large, coarse disk, turning brown, and at present is inclined to turn a dirty white. Its leaves are not handsome; sometimes double-rayed. Perhaps I should put this after the next two. The puniceus is a very large bush full of flowers, great rounded masses, two or more feet in diameter, the very pretty pink flowers well relieved by the back- ground of its dark-green leaves. A branch of it will, perhaps, make the greatest show of any of them at present. It has slender, rather open rays and grows upon me. It is peculiar for its color. Perhaps com- monly more purplish and larger. The longifolius is very densely rayed ; rays too short in proportion to disk, and too pale. Some are very large bushes with a great profusion of buds now. Some are paler and have longer linear rays, split once or twice. The D. linariifolius is interesting, with its commonly single flower, with very broad rays turned backward, or handsomer still when it has fifteen or twenty heads crowded together. The undulatus has a very bushy spreading panicle of a great many middle-sized flowers of not many commonly slender and open rays. Often paler and broader than these. The Tradescanti attracts attention in a vase, and carries off the palm with many, for its often perfect hollow pyramids of flowers with yellow or purplish disks. | The dumosus, too, is clearest white and neat. The D. umbellatus, a small sprig with its convex top, is a great ornament to the collection. The miser is like a broad-leaved and more spreading Tradescanti with still broader and more purplish disks, the rays turned back. A strawberry blossoms again in meadow. For three weeks the woods have had a strong musty smell from decaying fungi. ‘The maple-leaved vibur- num berries are a dark purple or black now. They are scarce. The red pyrus berries are ripe. The dense oval bunches of arum berries now startle the walker in swamps. They are a brilliant vermilion on a rich ground, seen where they have fallen off, which ground turns dark-purple. Saw an orange, and also a very bright yellow, slender fungus. Solidago latifolia, only a few out. The medeola berries are now dull glossy and almost blue-black; about three, on slender threads one inch long, arising in the midst of the cup formed by the purple bases of the whorl of three upper leaves. Hear the sharp quivet of pigeons at the Thrush Alley clearing. Mistook it for a jay at first, but saw the narrow, swift-flying bird soon. That low, thin, flat fern, already whitening, at Saw Mill Brook cannot be the dicksonia, for the segments of its pinne are entire. Solidago puberula (?) just fairly begun on northwest (? ) corner of Ministerial Clearing, behind Everett’s; but it is not hoary and has a red stem; very neat and handsome. Found in Hubbard’s Close Swamp and at Saw Mill Brook what is perhaps Aspidium Filiz- femina, in fruit, and I think four other kinds which I could not make out, three in fruit. Also Lycopodium lucidulum, shining club-moss.

Saturday. I saw this afternoon, on the chim- ney of the old Hunt house, in mortar filling an oblong square cavity apparently made when the chimney was, the date 1703.1. The rafters in the garret are for the most part of oak hewn, and more slender (though sufficiently strong and quite sound) than any sawed ones IT ever saw. Oak in the old houses, pine in the new. The soapwort gentian out abundantly in Filint’s Bridge Lane, apparently for a week; a surprisingly deep, fainily purplish blue. Crowded bunches of ten or a dozen sessile and closed narrow or oblong diamond or sharp dome shape flowers. ‘The whole bunch like many sharp domes of an Oriental city crowded together. I have here actually drawn my pen round one. It is the flowering of the sky. The sky has descended and kissed the earth. In (at top) a whorl of clear, smooth, rich green leaves. Why come these blue flowers thus late in the year? A dome-like crowd of domelets. Sophia saw last Monday morning (August 29th), going to Boston in the cars, the dew-like frost on the meadows. The hips of the sweet-briar begin to redden. Saw Polygonum dumetorum climbing to the top of birches and willows twelve feet high by the path to Peter’s along river. It is a rampant climber. Now is the season for those comparatively rare but beautiful wild berries which are not food for man. If we so industriously collect those berries which are sweet to the palate, it is strange that we do not devote an hour in the year to gathering those which are beauti- ful to the eye. It behooves me to go a-berrying in this sense once a year at least. Berries which are as beautiful as flowers, but far less known, the fruit of the flower. To fill my basket with the neglected but beautiful fruit of the various species of cornels and viburnums, poke, arum, medeola, thorns, ete. Saw at the floral show this afternoon some splendid specimens of the sunflower, king of asters, with the disk filled with ligulate flowers.

5.30 a. Mm. — To Nawshawtuct by river. Roman wormwood’s yellow dust on my clothes. Hear a warbling vireo, — something rare. I do not succeed in making two varieties of Polygonum amphi- biwm. All mine, from three inches above water and floating to three feet high on dry land, are apparently one. ‘The first, at any rate, must be aquaticum, — floating, nearly smooth, and leaves more heart-shaped. It appears by insensible gradations to pass into the other. See one or two lilies yet. The fragrance of a grape-vine branch, with ripe grapes on it, which I have brought home, fills the whole house. This fragrance is exceedingly rich, surpassing the flavor of any grape. P. M. — To Cliffs via Hubbard’s Swamp. The skunk-cabbage fruit lies flat and black now in the meadow. The Aster miser is a pretty flower, with its commonly wide and loose branches, variegated or parti-colored with its white rays and broad purplish (and yellow) disks giving it a modestly parti-colored look, with green leaves of sufficient breadth to relieve the flowers. Would it not be worth the while to devote one day each year to collecting with pains the different kinds of asters, — perhaps about this time, — and another to the goldenrods ? In Potter’s dry pasture I saw the ground black with blackbirds (troopials?). As I approach, the front rank rises and flits a little further back into the midst of the flock, — it rolls up on the edges, — and, being thus alarmed, they soon take to flight, with a loud rip- pling rustle, but soon alight again, the rear wheeling swiftly into place like well-drilled soldiers. Instead of being an irregular and disorderly crowd, they appear to know and keep their places and wheel with the precision of drilled troops. The lycopodium now sheds its pollen commonly. The hawks are soaring at the Cliffs. I think I never hear this peculiar, more musical scream, such as the jay appears to imitate, in the spring, only at and after midsummer when the young begin to fly. In Hubbard’s Swamp Path. Probably Solidago speciosa, though not yet in blossom there, very broad leaves, the radical-like plantain, covering the ground, and for the most part no more.