15 May 1854 – 21 May 1854

Judging from those in garden, the witch- hazel began to leaf yesterday, black alder to-day. P. M. — Up Assabet. The golden willow catkins are suddenly falling and cover my boat. High blueberry has flowered, say yesterday. Swamp-pink leafing, say yesterday. The Amelanchter Botryapium — some of them — have lost blossoms and show minute fruit. This I suspect the first sign of all wild edible fruit. Cornus florida began to leaf, say yesterday. The round-leafed cornel (at Island) is, I [think], as early as any of the cornels to leaf; put it for the present with the alternifolra. Gaylussacia begins to leaf to-day and is sticky. Poly- gonatum pubescens will apparently blossom to-morrow. Hickories make a show suddenly; their buds are so large, say yesterday. Young white oaks also yester- day. Old ones hardly to-day, but their catkins quite prominent. Young white oak (and black oak) leafets now very handsome, red on under side. Black oaks appear to have begun to leaf about the 13th, imme- diately after the red. The large P. grandidentata by river not leafing yet. Looked off from hilltop. Trees generally are now bursting into leaf. ‘The aspect of oak and other woods at a distance is somewhat like that of a very thick and reddish or yellowish mist about the evergreens. In other directions, the light, graceful, and more distinct yellowish-green forms of birches are seen, and, in swamps, the reddish or reddish-brown crescents of the red maple tops, now covered with keys. Oak leaves are as big as a mouse’s ear, and the farmers are busily planting. It is suddenly very warm and looks as if there might be a thunder-shower coming up from the west. The crow blackbird is distinguished by that harsh, springlike note. For the rest, there is a sort of split whistle, like a poor imitation of the red-wing. A yellow butterfly. Have just been looking at Nuttall’s ‘‘ North Ameri- can Sylva.’ Much research, fine plates and print and paper, and unobjectionable periods, but no turpentine, or balsam, or quercitron, or salicin, or birch wine, or the aroma of the balm-of-Gilead, no gallic, or ulmic, or even malic acid. The plates are greener and higher- colored than the words, etc., etc. It is sapless, if not leafless.

Tuesday. Saw an arum almost open the llth; say 16th (?), though not shedding pollen 16th at Conantum. Sugar maples, large, beginning to leaf, say 14th; also mulberry in the How garden to-day; locust the 14th; white [szc] spruce, the earliest to-day; buttonwood the 14th (leafing all). P. M. — To Conantum by boat with S. V. peregrina in ‘Channing’s garden, — purslane speedwell, — some flowers withered; some days at least. Observed all the oaks I know except the chest- nut and dwarf chestnut and scarlet (?).. I see anthers perhaps to all, but not yet any pollen. Apparently the most forward in respect to blossoming will be the shrub oak, which possibly is now in bloom in some places, then apparently swamp white, then red and black, then white. White oak apparently leafs with swamp white, or say next day.’ Red and black oaks leaf about together, before swamp white and white. Earliest sassafras opened yesterday; leafs to-day. Butternut will blossom to-morrow. The great fern by sassafras begins to bloom, probably Osmunda Claytoniana, two feet high now, — interrupted fern, —its very dark heads soon surmounted with green. Lambkill beginning to leaf. Green-briar leaf yester- day. The rich crimson leaf-buds of the grape, yester- day globular (and some to-day), are rapidly unfolding, scattered along the vine; and the various leaves un- folding are flower-like, and taken together are more interesting than any flower. Is that a hop? by the path at landing on hill with shoots now five or six inches long? Pads begin to appear and spread them- selves out on the surface here and there, as the water goes down, — though it is still over the meadows, — with often a scalloped edge like those tin platters on which country people sometimes bake turnovers. Their round green buds here and there look like the 1854) . A BOILING SPRING 267 heads of tortoises; and I saw in the course of the after- noon three or four just begun to blossom. Golden robin building her nest. It is easy to see now that the highest part of the meadow is next the river. There is generally a difference of a foot at least. Saw around a hardhack stem on the meadow, where the water was about two feet deep, a light-brown globular mass, two inches or more in diameter, which looked like a thistle-head full of some kind of seeds, some of which were separated from it by the agitation made by the boat but returned to it again. I then saw that they were living creatures. It was a mass of gelatinous spawn filled with litile light-colored pollywogs (?), or possibly fishes (?), all head and tail,—a long, broad light-colored and thin tail, which was vertical, appended to a head with two eyes. These were about a quarter of an inch long, and when washed off in the water wiggled back to the mass again. Quite warm; cows already stand in water in the shade of the bridge. I stopped to get some water at the springy bank just above the railroad. I dug a little hollow with my hands so that I could dip some up with a skunk-cabbage leaf, and, while waiting for it to settle, I thought, by a squirming and wriggling movement on the bottom, that the sand was all alive with some kind of worms or insects. There were in fact some worm-skins (?) on it. Looking closer, how- ever, [ found that this motion and appearance was produced by the bursting up of the water, which not only trickled down from the bank above but burst up from beneath. The sandy bottom was speckled with hundreds of small, regularly formed orifices, like those in a pepper-box, about which the particles of sand kept in motion had made me mistake it for squirming worms. ‘There was considerable loam or soil mixed with the sand. These orifices, separated by slight in- tervals like those in the nose of a water-pot, gave to the spring an unexpectedly regular appearance. It is surprising how quickly one of these springs will run clear. Also drank at what I will call Alder Spring at Clamshell Hill. Looked into several red-wing blackbirds’ nests which are now being built, but no eggs yet. They are generally hung between two twigs, say of button-bush. I noticed at one nest what looked like a tow string securely tied about a twig at each end about six: inches apart, left loose in the middle. It was not a string, but I think a strip of milkweed pod, etc., — water asclepias probably, — maybe a foot long and very strong. How remarkable that this bird should have found out the strength of this, which I was so slow to find out! The leaf-buds at last suddenly burst. It is now very difficult to compare one with another or keep the run of them. The bursting into leaf of the greater num- ber, including the latest, is accomplished within a week, say from the 13th of May this year to probably the 20th; that is, within these dates they acquire minute leafets. This same is the principal planting week me- thinks. The clethra well leafed, say with the bass (?). Andromeda calyculata, leaf to-morrow. The red or crimsoned young leaves of the black and red (?) oaks,—the former like red damask, — and 1854) - YOUNG OAK LEAVES 269 the maroon(?)-red inclining to flesh-color — salmon- red (?)—of the white oak, all arranged ’ now like little parasols, —in white oak five . leafets, — are as interesting and beautiful as fi \\ flowers, downy and velvet-like. Sorrel well hi \ out in some warm places. Ranunculus bul- bosus will flower to-morrow, under Clamshell. Yester- day, when the blossoms of the golden willow began to fall, the blossoms of the apple began to open. Landed at Conantum by the red cherry grove above Arrowhead Field. The red cherries six inches in diam- eter and twenty-five or thirty [feet] high, in full bloom, with a reddish smooth bark. It is a splendid day, so clear and bright and fresh; the warmth of the air and the bright tender verdure putting forth on all sides make an impression of luxuriance and genialness, so perfectly fresh and uncankered. A sweet scent fills the air from the expanding leafets or some other source. The earth is all fragrant as one flower. And bobolinks tinkle in the air. Nature now is perfectly genial to man. I noticed the dark shadow of Conantum Cliff from the water. Why do I notice it at this season particu- larly? Is it because a shadow is more grateful to the sight now that warm weather has come? Or is there anything in the contrast between the rich green of the grass and the cool dark shade? As we walked along to the C. Chff, I saw many Potentilla Canaden- sis var. pumila now spotting the ground. Vaccinium vacillans just out. Arenaria serpyllifolia to-morrow. Myosotis stricta in several places; how long? Trillium out, possibly yesterday. Maidenhair ferns some up and some starting, unclenching their little red fists. Fever-bush, say leafed about the 12th. Returning, the water is smoother than common, — quite glassy in some places. It is getting to be difficult to cross the meadows. Float close under the edge of the wood. But the wind changes to east and blows agreeably fresh. How fair and elysian these rounded and now green Indian hills, with their cool dark shadows on the east side! There are great summer clouds in the sky, — blocked rhomboidal masses tier above tier, white, glowing above, darker beneath. On Hubbard’s meadow, saw a motion in the water as if a pickerel had darted away; approached and saw a middle-sized snapping turtle on the bottom; managed at last, after stripping off my coat and roll- ing up my shirt-sleeve, by thrusting in my arm to the shoulder, to get him by the tail and lift him aboard. He tried to get under the boat. He snapped at my shoe and got the toe in his mouth. His back was covered with green moss (?), or the like, mostly con- cealing the scales. In this were small leeches. Great, rough, but not hard, scales on his legs. He made a pretty loud hissing like a cross dog, by his breathing. It was wonderful how suddenly this sluggish creature would snap at anything. As he lay under the seat, I scratched his back, and, filling himself with air and rage, his head would suddenly fly upward, his shell striking the seat, just as a steel trap goes off, and though I was prepared for it, it never failed to startle me, it was so swift and sudden. He slowly inflated himself, and then suddenly went off like a percussion 1854) - A SNAPPING TURTLE 271 lock snapping the air. ‘Thus undoubtedly he catches fishes, as a toad catches flies. His laminated tail and great triangular points in the rear edge of his shell. Nature does not forget beauty of outline even in a mud turtle’s shell. Rhodora well out, probably two days, and leaf as long, or yesterday. The stinkpots have climbed two or three feet up the, willows and hang there. I suspect that they appear first about the same time with the snap- ping turtles. Far and near I see painted turtles sunning or tumbling off the little hummocks laid bare by the descending water, their shells shining in the sun.

5.30 a. mM. — To Island. The water is now tepid in the morning to the hands (may have been a day or two), as I slip my hands down the paddle. Hear the wood pewee, the warm- weather sound. As I was returning over the meadow this side of the Island, I saw the snout of a mud turtle above the surface, — little more than an inch of the point, — and paddled toward it. Then, as he moved slowly on the surface, different parts of his shell and head just appearing looked just like the scalloped edges of some pads which had just reached the sur- face. I pushed up and found a large snapping turtle on the bottom. He appeared of a dirty brown there, very nearly the color of the bottom at present. With his great head, as big as an infant’s, and his vigilant | eyes as he paddled about on the bottom in his attempts to escape, he looked not merely repulsive, but to some extent termble even as a crocodile. At length, after thrusting my arm in up to the shoulder two or three times, I succeeded in getting him into the boat, where I secured him with a lever under a seat. I could get him from the landing to the house only by turning him over and drawing him by the tail, the hard crests of which afforded a good hold; for he was so heavy that I could not hold him off so far as to prevent his snap- ping at my legs. He weighed thirty and a half pounds. Extreme length of shell..................154 inches Length of shell in middle.................15 “ Greatest width of shell...................19) (This was toward the rear.) Tail (evo SBIR), 0. 66sec sens ss ccceedlde “ His head and neck it was not easy to measure, but, judging from the proportions of one described by Storer, they must have been 10 inches long at least, which makes the whole length 37 inches. Width of head 44 inches; with the skin of the neck, more than 5. His sternum, which was slightly depressed, was 104 by 53. Depth from back to sternum about 7 inches. There were six great scallops, or rather triangular points, on the hind edge of his shell, three on each side, the middle one of each three the longest, about + of an inch. He had surprisingly stout hooked jaws, of a gray color or bluish-gray, the upper shutting over the under, - j= a more or less sharp triangular beak cor- A responding to one below; and his flippers were armed with very stout claws 1} inches long. He had a very ugly and spiteful face (with a vigilant gray eye, which was never shut in any posi- tion of the head), surrounded by the thick and ample 1854) ° A SNAPPING TURTLE 273 folds of the skin about his neck. His shell was com- paratively smooth and free from moss,—a dirty black. He was a dirty or speckled white beneath. He made the most remarkable and awkward appearance when walking. The edge of his shell was lifted about eight inches from the ground, tilting now to this side, then to that, his great scaly legs or flippers hanging with flesh and loose skin, — slowly and gravely (=) hissing the while. His walking was perfectly elephan- tine. Thus he stalked along, — a low conical moun- tain, — dragging his tail, with his head turned up- ward with the ugliest and most venomous look, on his flippers, half leg half fin. But he did not proceed far before he sank down to rest. If he could support a world on his back when lying down, he certainly could not stand up under it. All said that he walked like an elephant. When lying on his back, showing his dirty white and warty under side, with his tail curved round, he reminded you forcibly of pictures of the dragon. He could not easily turn himself back; tried many times in vain, resting betweenwhiles. Would inflate himself and convulsively spring with head and all upward, so as to lift his shell from the ground, and he would strike his head on the ground, lift up his shell, and catch at the earth with his claws. His back was of two great blunt ridges with a hollow between, down the middle of which was a slight but distinct ridge also. There was also a ridge of spines more or less hard on each side of his crested tail. Some of these spines in the crest of the tail were nearly half an inch high. Storer says that they have five claws on the fore legs, but only four on the hind ones. In this there was a perfectly distinct fifth toe (?) on the hind legs, though it did not pierce the skin; and on the fore legs it did not much more. S. does not say how many toes he has. These claws must be powerful to dig with. This, then, is the season for hunting them, now that the water is warmer, before the pads are common, and the water is getting shallow on the meadows. E. Wood, Senior, speaks of two seen fighting for a long time in the river in front of his house last year. I have heard of one being found in the meadow in the winter surrounded by frozen mud. Is not this the heaviest animal found wild in this township? Certainly none but the otter approaches it. Farrar says that, when he was eleven, one which he could not lift into the boat towed him across the river; weighed twenty-nine. Lilac is out and horse-chestnut. The female flowers — crimson cones — of the white [sic] spruce, but not yet the staminate. The turtle was very sluggish, though capable of putting forth great strength. He would just squeeze into a flour barrel and would not quite lie flat in it when his head and tail were drawn in. There was [a] triangular place in the bottom of his mouth and an eee, . orifice within it through which, appar- QO ently, he breathed, the orifice opening and shutting. I hear of a man who injured his back seriously for many years by carrying one some distance at arm’s length to prevent his biting him. They are frequently seen fighting and their shells heard striking together. . P. M. — To Cedar Swamp via Assabet. The tupelo began to leaf apparently yesterday. ‘The large green keys of the white maples are now conspicu- ous, looking like the wings of insects. Azalea nudt- flora in woods begins to leaf now, later than the white kind. Viola Muhlenbergu out, say yesterday. It is a pale violet. Judging from the aspect of the Lentago yesterday, I should put its leafing decidedly before Viburnum nudum. Also apparently the late rose soon after the one observed, and the moss about same time with first. The swamp white and white oak are slow to leaf. Large maples, too, are not rapid; but the birches, aspens, and balm-of-Gileads burst out suddenly into leaf and make a great show. Also the young sugar maples in the street now and for some days have made a show of broad luxuriant leaves, early and rapidly. In the case of the early aspen you could almost see the leaves expand and acquire a darker green—this to be said the 12th or 13th or 14th—under the influ- ence of the sun and genial atmosphere. Now they are only as big as a ninepence, to-morrow or sooner they are as big as a pistareen, and the next day they are as big as a dollar. So too the green veils or screens of the birches rapidly thickened. This from its far greater prevalence than the aspens, balm-of-Gilead, white ma- ples, etc., is the first to give the woodlands anywhere generally a (fresh) green aspect. It is the first to clothe large tracts of deciduous woodlands with green, and perchance it marks an epoch in the season, the trans?- tion decidedly and generally from bare twigs to leaves. When the birches have put on their green sacks, then a new season has come. The light reflected from their tender yellowish green is like sunlight. The turtle’s snapping impressed me as something mechanical, like a spring, as if there were no volition about [it]. Its very suddenness seemed too great for a conscious movement. Perhaps in these cold-blooded and sluggish animals there is a near approach to the purely material and mechanical. Their very tenacity of life seems to be owing to their insensibility or small amount of life, — indeed, to be an irritation of the muscles. One man tells me of a turtle’s head which, the day after it was cut off, snapped at a dog’s tail and made him run off yelping, and I have witnessed something similar myself. I can think of nothing but a merely animated jaw, as it were a piece of mechanism. There is in this creature a tremendous development of the jaw, and, long after the head is cut off, this snaps vigorously when irritated, like a piece of mechanism. A naturalist tells me that he dissected one and laid its heart aside, and he found it beating or palpitating the next morning. ‘They are sometimes baited with eels and caught with a hook. Apparently the best time to hunt them is in the morning when the water is smooth. There is a surprising change since I last passed up the Assabet; the fields are now clothed with so dark and rich a green, and the wooded shore is all lit up with the tender, bright green of birches fluttering in the wind and shining in the light, and red maple keys are seen at a distance against the tender green of birches and other trees, tingeing them. The wind is easterly, having changed, and produces an agreeable raw muistiness, unlike the dry blue haze of dog-days, just visible, between a dew and a fog for den- © sity. I sail up the stream, but the wind is hardly power- ful enough to overcome the current, and sometimes I am almost at a standstill where the stream is most contracted and swiftest, and there I sit carelessly wait- ing for the struggle between wind and current to de- cide itself. Then comes a stronger puff, and I see by the shore that I am advancing to where the stream is broader and runs less swiftly and where lighter breezes can draw me. In contracted and swift-running places, the wind and current are almost evenly matched. It is a pleasing delay, to be referred to the elements, and meanwhile I survey the shrubs on shore. The white cedar shows the least possible life in its extremities now. Put it with the arbor-vite, or after it. Poison dogwood beginning to leaf, say yesterday. Nemo- panthes out; leafed several days ago. And the clus- tered andromeda leafed apparently a day or more before it. Gold-thread out. Viola palmata. I cannot well examine the stone-heaps, the water is so deep. Muskrats are now sometimes very bold; he on the surface and come swimming directly toward the boat as if to reconnoitre — this in two cases within a few days. Pretty sure to see a crescent of light under their tails when they dive. The splendid rhodora now sets the swamps on fire with its masses of rich color. It is one of the first flowers to catch the eye at a distance in masses, — so naked, unconcealed by its own leaves. Observed a rill emptying in above the stone-heaps, and afterward saw where it ran out of June-berry Meadow, and I considered how surely it would have conducted me to the meadow, if I had traced it up. I was impressed as it were by the intelligence of the brook, which for ages in the wildest regions, before science is born, knows so well the level of the ground and through whatever woods or other obstacles finds its way. Who shall distinguish between the Jaw by which a brook finds its river, the instinct [by which] a bird performs its migrations, and the knowledge by which a man steers his ship round the globe? The globe is the richer for the variety of its inhabitants. Saw a large gray squirrel near the split rock in the Assabet. He went skipping up the limb of one tree and down the limb of another, his great gray rudder undulating through the air, and occasionally hid himself behind the main stem. The Salix nigra will open to-morrow.

'To Pedrick’s meadow. Viola lanceolata, two days at least. Celandine yes- terday. The V. pedata beginning to be abundant. Chinquapin was probably a little later to leaf, and will be to flower, than the shrub oak. Its catkins, light green, remind me of those of the swamp white oak. Buttonwood balls, one third inch in diameter, have been blown off, and some have a dull-purplish fuzzy surface (most are solid green); apparently just begin- ning to blossom. Red cedar shows the least possible sign of starting. The pyrus, probably black-fruited, in bloom as much as two days. Huckleberry. Now for the tassels of the shrub oak; I can find no pollen yet about them, but, as the oak catkins in my pitcher, plucked yesterday, shed pollen to-day, I think I may say that the bear shrub oak, red and black oaks open to-morrow.' I see the pincushion or crimson-tinged galls now on shrub oaks around the bases of the young shoots, — some green-shell ones on oak leaves, like large peas, and small now greenish-white fungus-like ones on swamp-pink. ‘Thus early, before the leaves are a quarter expanded, the gall begins. I see poten- tillas already ascending five or six inches, but no flower on them, in the midst of low ones in flower. Smilacina trifolia will apparently open to-morrow in Pedrick’s meadow. A large clay-brown and blotched snake; is it the chicken snake or water adder? Beach plum in full bloom by red house, apparently two or three days. It is one of the very latest plants to leaf; only a few buds just begin to show any green. One man has been a-fishing, but said the water and the wind were too high; caught a few. High winds all day racking the young trees and blowing off blossoms.

5.30 a. mM. — To Nawshawtuct and Island. Ranunculus Purshu will apparently open to-day. Its little green buds somewhat like a small yellow lily. The water has now fallen so much that the grass is rapidly springing up through it on the meadows. Red- wing’s nest with two eggs. A geranium, apparently yesterday. Celtis for several days. Button-bush began to leaf, say the 17th; 7. e., some of its buds began to burst. Choke-cherry out. Aralia nudicaulis, apparently yesterday. The red-eye. The early thorn looks as if it would open to-day. I hear the sprayey-note frog now at sunset. Now for four or five days, — though they are now for the most part large, — or since the 15th came in, the young and tender oak leaves, disposed umbrella-wise about the extremities of last year’s twigs, have been very attractive from their different tints of red. Those of the black and white oaks are, methinks, especially handsome, the former already showing their minute and tender bristles, and all hand- somely lobed. Some of the black oak leaves are like a rich, dark-red velvet; the white oak have a paler and more delicate tint, somewhat flesh-colored, though others are more like the black, — what S. calls a maroon red. So of the bear scrub oak; the swamp white and chinquapin are more of a downy or silvery white. The white pine shoots are now two or three inches long generally, — upright light marks on the body of dark green. ‘Those of the pitch pine are less conspicuous. Hemlock does not show yet. The light shoots, an inch or so long, of the fir balsam spot the trees. ‘The larch is a mass of fresh, airy, and cool green. Arbor-vite, red cedar, and white show no life except on the closest inspection. They are some of the latest trees. The juniper is about with the fir balsam. I have already described the oaks sufficiently. The hazel is now a pretty green bush. Butternuts, like hickories, make a show suddenly with their large buds. I have not examined the birches, except the white, this year. The alders are slow to expand their leaves, but now begin to show a mass of green along the river, and, with the willows, afford concealment to the birds’ nests. The birds appear to be waiting for this screen. The robin’s nest and eggs are the earliest I see. Saw one in the midst of a green-briar over the water the other day, before the briar had put out at all, which shows some foresight, for it will be perfectly invisible, if not inaccessible, soon. The great poplar is quite late to leaf, especially those that blossom; not yet do they show much, — a silvery leaf. The golden willow is the only tree used about here at the same time for a fence and for shade. It also prevents the causeways from being washed away. The black willow is the largest as well as the hand- somest of our native willows. Young elms are leafing pretty fast, old ones are late and slow. The samare of the elms first make a thick top, leaf-like, before the leaves come out. Ash trees are like hickories in respect to the size of the young leaves. The young leafets of the wild holly (Nemopanthes) on the 17th were peculiarly thin and pellucid, yellow-green. I know of none others like them. Those of the black alder are not only late but dark. The button-bush is not only very late, but the buds are slow to expand, and me- thinks are very far apart, so that they do not soon make a show; for the most part at a little distance there is no appearance of life in them even yet. The sweet viburnum and also the naked are early to make a show with their substantial leaves. The andromedas are all late,—if I remember, the clustered (?) the earliest. The common swamp-pink is earlier to leaf but later to blossom than the nudiflora. The rhodora is late, and is naked flowering. The mountain laurel is one of the latest plants. The resinous dotted leaves of the huckleberry are interesting. The high blue- berries are early (to bloom) and resound with the hum of.bees. All the cornels begin to leaf apparently about the same time, though I do not know but the round- leaved is the earliest. I have not observed the dwarf. The witch-hazel is rather late, and can afford to be. One kind of thorn is well leafed, the other not. The mountain-ash is the first tree which grows here, either naturally or otherwise, to show green at a little dis- tance. Is it not true that érees which belong peculiarly to a colder latitude are among our earliest and those which prefer a warmer among our latest? The choke- berry’s shining leaf is interesting. With what unob- served secure dispatch nature advances! The ame- lanchiers have bloomed, and already both kinds have shed their blossoms and show minute green fruit. There is not an instant’s pause! The beach plum — such as I have observed —is the latest to begin to expand of all deciduous shrubs or trees, for aught I know. The sight of it suggests that we are near the seacoast, that even our sands are in some sense lit- toral, — or beaches. The cherries are all early to leaf, but only one, perhaps the wild red, and that in one place, is in mass enough to make much show. The woodbine is well advanced — shoots two or three inches long. It must have begun to leaf more than a week ago. “The linden leafs suddenly and rapidly, — a round, thin, transparent-looking (?) leaf. 1 'The C. florida is rather late. A washing day, —a strong rippling wind, and all things bright.

Woodbine shoots (brick house) already two or three inches long; put it, say, with the red oak. Potentilla argentea. White [sic] spruce, male flowers. White ash, apparently a day or two. Mr. Prichard’s. The English hawthorn opens at same time with our earlier thorn. | Very low thunder-clouds and showers far in the north at sunset, the wind of which, though -not very strong, has cooled the air. Saw the lightning, but could not hear the thunder. I saw in the northwest first rise, in the rose-tinted horizon sky, a dark, nar- row, craggy cloud, narrow and projecting as no cloud ‘on earth, seen against the rose-tinged sky, — the crest of a thunder-storm, beautiful and grand. The steadily increasing sound of toads and frogs along the river with each successive warmer night is one of the most important peculiarities of the season. ‘Their prevalence and loudness is in proportion to the increased tem- perature of the day. It is the first earth-song, begin- ning with the croakers, (the cricket’s not yet), as if the very meads at last burst into a meadowy song. I hear a few bullfrogs and but few hylodes. Methinks we al- ways have at this time those washing winds as now, when the choke-berry is in bloom, —bright and breezy days blowing off some apple blossoms.

Sunday. Quince. A slight fog in morning. Some bullfrogs in morning, and I see a yellow swelling throat. They — these throats — come with the yellow lily. Cobwebs on grass, the first I have noticed. This is one of the date phenomena of spring. These little dewy nets or gauze, a faery’s washing spread out in the night, are associated with the finest days of the year, days long enough and fair enough for the worthiest deeds. When these begin to be seen, then is not sum- mer come? I notice the fir balsam sterile flowers al- ready effete. | P.M. —'TorDeep, Cut. A shower, heralded only by thunder and lightning, has kept me in till late in the afternoon. The sterile Equisetum arvense, now well up, green the bank. Bluets begin to whiten the fields. A tanager,—the surprising red bird, — against the darkening green leaves. I see a little growth in the mitchella. The larger Populus grandidentata here are pretty well leaved out and may be put with the young ones. ‘Trientalis, perhaps yes- terday. Smilacina bifolia, apparently to-morrow. Hear the squeak of a nighthawk. The deciduous trees now begin to balance the evergreens. Red oaks are quite green. Young hemlocks have grown a quarter of an inch; old just started; but by to-morrow they will show their growth by contrast more than the button- bush. Lycopodiums just started, — light or yellow- ish green tips. Cornus Canadensis. The single-berry prinos leafs, say with the other. Was surprised to find a nemopanthes on the upland,—Stow’s Clearing. Dangle-berry leafs, say next after the common huckle- berry. Young checkerberry reddish shoots just begin to show themselves. Twilight on river. The reddish white lily pads here and there and the heart-leaves begin to be seen. A few pontederias, like long-handled spoons. The water going rapidly down, that often purplish bent grass is seen lying flat along it a foot or more, in parallel blades like matting. It is surprising how the grass shoots up now through the shallow water on the meadows, so fresh and tender, you can almost see it grow, for the fall of the water adds to its apparent growth; and the river weeds, too, —flags, polygonums, and potamogetons, etc., etc., — are rapidly pushing up. Sassafras is slow to leaf. A whip-poor-will.