21 July 1856 – 27 July 1856

P. M.— To A. Wheeler’s grape meadow. Mimulus, not long. Hypericum corymbosum, a day or two. Rusty cotton-grass, how long? The small hypericums are open only in the forenoon. Pursley, also, in our garden opens now not till 8 A. M., and shuts up before 12 M. The flat euphorbia is now in prime on the sandy path beyond Potter’s Desert, five-finger fungus path. Plucked a handful of huckleberries from one bush! The Vaccinium vacillans thick enough to go picking, and probably for a day or two in some places. Low blackberries thick enough to pick in some places, three or four days. ‘Thimble-berries about the 12th, and V. Pennsylvanicum much longer. These hot afternoons I go panting through the close sprout-lands and copses, as now from Cliff Brook to Wheeler meadow, and occasionally come to sandy places a few feet in diameter where the partridges have dusted themselves. Gérard, the lion-killer of Algiers, speaks of seeing similar spots when tracking or patiently waiting the lion there, and his truth in this particular is a confirmation of the rest of his story. But his pursuit dwarfs this fact and makes it seem trivial. Shall not my pursuit also contrast with the trivialness of the par- tridges’ dusting? It is interesting to find that the same phenomena, however simple, occur in different parts of the globe. I have found an arrowhead or two in such places even. Far in warm, sandy woods in hot weather, when not a breath of air is stirring, I come upon these still sandier and warmer spots where the partridges have dusted themselves, now all still and deserted, and am not relieved, yet pleased to find that I have been pre- ceded, by any creature. Grapes ready to stew. Mr. Russell writes me to-day that he visited the locality of the Magnolia glauca the 18th, on Cape Ann, and saw lingering still a few flowers and flower-buds. It is quite open and rising above the bushes.

9 a. mM. — Up river for Nuphar Kalmiana with Russell. Pasture thistle, not long. Hypericum Sandie not long, or perhaps some days. Antennaria margaritacea. Scutellaria lateriflora, apparently some days. R. says that my five-finger fungus is the Lycoperdon stellatum and can be found now. I find it in some places. (It is different from the white rough-coated puffball now found.) It was exhibited lately in Boston as the “re- surrection plant” (!!) to compete with the one imported from Palestine. That what I have called fresh-water sponge is such, Spongea fluviatilis, and, like the marine, is uncertain whether vegetable or animal. When burned it leaves a mass of white spicula which have been mis- taken for infusoria! Thinks the dry brown last-year’s plant I brought from Haskell’s Island, Lakeville, the Epiphegus. That the Rubus Canadensis, low black- berry, is not found far west of us. That there is de- scribed — he thinks in Hooker’s English Flora — a certain massing up of a conferva similar to that of my eriocaulon balls. Has seen a Mexican species, allied to the potato, cultivated hereabouts, which became a weed, — would not become larger than a walnut. Speaks of the young pouts with their bladders attached, accompanied by the old. That the berries of the celtis are pleasant to taste, those of the sassafras abominable. Showed me the Dulichium spathaceum, leaves in three ranks, so common along river, now in bloom; also the Carex lupulina (?) or retrorsa (?), hop sedge, with the inflated perigynia. Said that those reddish clusters of buds on a rush or carex were enlarged by disease. That the two white cotton-grasses (Eriophorum) were probably but one species, taller and shorter; also the two wool-grasses Scirpus — Trichophorum [sic] were probably but one species, the tall and short. That there was an account of the lecheas by Tuckerman in Szlli- man’s Journal. P. M. — To Walden for hydropeltis. - A young sternotherus which R. picked up recently dead, on the shore of the pond, was one and one sixteenth inches long, — the upper shell, — probably therefore a last year’s one, or not yet one year old. Very high and sharp back. but broader than old. No hook to upper bill. That fern leaf on my coal (?) is probably the Neu- ropteris as figured in Richardson’s Botany. Saw at Hydropeltis Meadow a small bullfrog in the act of swallowing a young but pretty sizable apparently Rana palustris, such as now hop about, an inch and a half long. He took it down head foremost, and as the legs were slowly taken in, — stuffing himself, — for the legs were often straightened out, — I wondered what sat- isfaction it could be to the larger to have that cold slimy fellow, entire, lying head to tail within him! I sprang to make him disgorge, but it was too late to save him. Though I tossed the bullfrog out of the water, the palustris was entombed. So little while had he been in the light when he fell into that recess! Bathing in Wal- den, I find the water considerably colder at the bottom while I stand up to my chin, but the sandy bottom much warmer to my feet than the water. The heat passes through the water with[out] being absorbed by it much. The hydropeltis leaves so crowded they cannot lie flat, but their edges show (a good part [of] the under side) as if blown up by wind. The water adder killed on the 15th and left hanging on a twig has decayed wonderfully. I perceive no odor, and it is already falling to pieces. I can see most of its ribs and through and through in many directions!! It is already mere skin and skeleton, as empty as [a] flute. I can count the bare ribs, and it [is] inoffensive to the smell. See apparently young goldfinches about, very freshly bright golden and black. The small potamogeton, heterophyllus (?) or hy- bridus (?), out some time. Ludwigia alternifolia, five or six days.

P. M.— To Flint’s Pond. Solidago stricta,’ Ingraham Path, well out, some days. Chimaphila maculata, three flowers, apparently but few days, while the wmbellata is quite done there. Leaves just shooting up. See those light-bordered dark spots on tall and other goldenrod leaves (fungi (?) says Russell). In the low Flint’s Pond Path, beyond Brit- ton’s, the tall rough goldenrod makes a thicket higher than my head. Many hazelnut burs now look rough and reddish about the base. Tobacco-pipe much blackened, out a long time. I find, at the shallow stone wharf shore, three balls in good condition, walking about half the length of that shore. Methinks it was about a week earlier than this that they were found last year. ‘There is on the surface of the water, washed up and floating about, a good deal of the eriocaulon, loosened up, perhaps, by pouts or other creatures, and also some other fine weeds with it. Yet the eriocaulon has but just begun to bloom! So also the vallisneria has washed up some time in river. There is also a very fine rush (?) on the bottom there like hair. Is that a little submerged kind of utricularia or ranunculus on the sandy bottom in shallow water there, looking thin and dissolving from above, like a conferva ? — like little regular green masses of con- ferva ?

Friday. A. M.— Up river to see hyperi- cums out. Eycopus Virginicus, with its runners, perhaps some days, in Hosmer Flat Meadow. Whorled utricularia very abundantly out, apparently in its prime. Lysv- machia ciliata some days. The Hveraczum Canadense grows by the road fence in Potter’s hydrocotyle field, some seven or eight inches high, in dense tufts! The haymakers getting in the hay from Hubbard’s meadow tell me the cock says we are going to have a long spell of dry weather or else very wet. “ Well, there ’s some difference between them,” I answer; “how do you know it?” “I just heard a cock crow at noon, and that’s a sure sign it will either be very dry or very wet.” The Hypericum perforatum, corymbosum, and ellip- ticum are not open this forenoon, but the angulosum, Canadense, mutilum, and Sarothra are partly curled up (their petals) even by 9 a. M.; perhaps because it is very warm, for day before yesterday, methinks, I saw the mutilum and Sarothra open later. The street is now strewn with bark under the button- wood at the brick house. Has not the hot weather taken the bark off? The air begins to be thick and almost smoky.

Saturday. 5 a. mM.— Up Assabet. The sun’s disk is seen round and red for a long distance above the horizon, through the thick but cloud- less atmosphere, threatening heat, — hot, dry weather. At five the lilies had not opened, but began about 5.15 and were abundantly out at six. Arranged the hypericums in bottles this morning and watched their opening.

Lobelia cardinalis, three or four days, with similar white glands (?) on edges of leaves as in E. spicata. Why is not this noticed? Cornus sericea about done. As I was paddling by Dodge’s Brook, a great devil’s- needle lit on my paddle, between my hands. It was about three inches long and three and a half in spread of wings, without spots, black and yellow, with green eyes (?). It kept its place within a few inches of my eyes, while I was paddling some twenty-five rods against a strong wind, clinging closely. Perhaps it chose that place for coolness this hot day. To-day, as yesterday, it is more comfortable to be walking or paddling at 2 and 3 p. M., when there is wind, but at five the wind goes down and it is very still and suffocating. I afterward saw other great devil’s-needles, the forward part of their bodies light-blue and very stout. The Stellaria longifolia is out of bloom and drying up. Vide some of this date pressed. At Bath Place, above, many yellow lily pads are left high and dry for a long time, in the zizania hollow, a foot or more above the dry sand, yet with very firm and healthy green leaves, almost the only ones not eaten by insects now. This river is quite low. The yellow lilies stand up seven or eight inches above the water, and, opposite to Merriam’s, the rocks show their brown backs very thick (though some are concealed), like sheep and oxen lying down and chewing the cud in a meadow. I fre- quently run on to one — glad when it’s the smooth side — and am tilted up this way or that, or spin round as on a central pivot. They bear the red or blue paint from many a boat, and here their moss has been rubbed off. Ceratophyllum is now apparently in bloom commonly, with its crimson-dotted involucre. I am surprised to find kalmiana lilies scattered thinly all along the Assabet, a few small, commonly reddish pads in middle of river, but I see no flowers. It is their great bluish waved (some green) radical leaves which I had mistaken for those of the heart-leaf, the floating leaves being so small. ‘These and vallisneria washed up some time. The radical leaves of the heart-leaf are very small and rather triangular. I see, on a rock in midstream, a peetweet within a foot of a turtle, both eying me anxiously within two rods, but not minding each other. Zizania scarce out some days at least.