3 July 1854 – 9 July 1854

Monday. I hear the purple finch these days about the houses, — @ twitter witter weeter wee, a witter witter wee. P. M. — To Hubbard Bridge by boat. On the great hummock dropped on Dennis’s meadow last winter, I see now flourishing, of small plants, water milkweed, Lysimachia stricta, hedgehog (?) grass, horse-mint, arrowhead, onoclea, Vola lanceo- lata, gratiola, and the small-flowered hypericum, as well as meadow-grass.

A sultry night the last; bear no covering; all windows open. © 8 a. M.— To Framingham. Great orange-yellow lily, some days, wild yellow lily, drooping, well out. Asclepias obtusifolia, also day or two. Some chestnut trees show at distance as if blossoming. Buckwheat, how long? I probably saw Asclepias purpurascens (??) over the walls. A very hot day.

Another very hot night, and scarcely any dew this morning. Lysimachia lanceolata var. hybrida, a day or two, at Merrick’s Bathing-Place. Bass at Island. P. M. — To White Pond. One hundred and nine swallows on telegraph-wire at bridge within eight rods, and others flying about. Stachys aspera, Clamshell Ditch. The blue-curls and fragrant everlasting, with their refreshing aroma, show themselves now pushing up in dry fields, — bracing to the thought. Horse-mint under Clamshell, apparently yesterday. On Lupine Knoll, picked up a dark-colored spear-head three and a half inches long, lying on the bare sand; so hot that I could not long hold it tight in my hand. Now the earth begins to be parched, the corn curls, and the four-leaved loose- strife, etc., etc., wilt and wither. Sericocarpus. Small circea at Corner Spring, some days. Rosa Carolina, apparently a day or two, Corner causeway; dull leaves with fine serrations, twenty-five to thirty, plus, on a side, and narrow closed stipules. Asclepias in- carnata var. pulchra.

P. M. — To Beck Stow’s. Euphorbia maculata, good while. Polygonum avi- culare, a day or two. Now a great show of elder blos- soms. Polygala sanguinea, apparently a day or more. Galium asprellum in shade; probably earlier in sun. Partridges a third grown. Veery still sings and toad rings.

P. M. — To lygodium. Verbena urticerfolia. ITlysanthes, three or four days back, flat east of Clamshell Shore. Large form of arrowhead, two or more days. Woodcock at the spring under Clamshell. Campanula aparinoides, apparently three or four days. The clover heads are turned brown and dry, and whiteweed is also drying up. I think that that is the water dock just opening in J. P. Brown’s meadow. Disturbed two broods of partridges this afternoon, — one a third grown, flying half a dozen rods over the bushes, yet the old, as anxious as ever, rushing to me with the courage of a hen. Columbines still. Lygodium palmatum hardly yet in flower, I should say; for the most very green and tender atop and not much flatted out. Saw a pretty large hawk with nar- row and long wings, black-tipped beneath, and white ~ rump, light beneath, circling over the Ministerial Swamp with a loud, shuffling, jay-like and somewhat flicker-like sound.

Saturday. P. M.—'To Assabet Bathing- Place. Melilot, a day or two. Spiranthes gracilis, a day or two(?). A Lystmachia stricta (?) by birch fence in path beyond Shad-bush Meadow, with whorls of three leaves and spike about eight inches long, about June 26th ; lower half now out of bloom, one quarter in bloom, upper quarter budded. Ludwigia. The 4th and 5th were the hot bathing days thus far ; thermometer at 98 and 96 respectively. Sium almost ; say 9th. 8 p. M. — Full moon ; by boat to Hubbard’s Bend. There is wind, making it cooler and keeping off fog, delicious on water. The moon reflected from the rippled surface like a stream of dollars. I hear a few toads still. See a bat; how long? The bullfrogs trump from time to time. It is commonly a full round errr, err, err, err (gutturally, and increasing in volume), and then coarsely trilled (?), er-er-er, er-er-er, er-er-er ; occasionally varied like the looing of a bull. The whip-poor-wills are heard, and the baying of dogs. The Rosa nitida I think has [been] some time done; the lucida generally now ceasing, and the Carolina (? ) just begun. The middle lechea not quite.

Sunday. P. M.— Fair Haven Hill via Hub- bard’s Bathing-Place. Vaccinium vacillans berry, four or five days; com- mon blue huckleberry. Hubbard aster, some days. Is it not Tradescanti-like? Begins to blossom low in the grass. Hypericum corymbosum, not yet. Tansy by railroad causeway, a day or more. Chenopodium al- bum.