15 September 1856 – 21 September 1856

Monday. Sophia says, bringing company into my sanctum, by way of apology, that I regard the dust on my furniture like the bloom on fruits, not to be swept off. Which reminds me that the bloom on fruits and stems is the only dust which settles on Nature’s furniture. P. M. — To Hubbard’s Swamp. Aster longifolius and puniceus and Spiranthes cer- nua in prime. Early Solidago stricta ' done, but some putting out again in the axils, while dead at top, maybe owing to the rains. Meadow-sweet lingers yet! What I must call Bidens cernua, like a small chry- santhemoides, is bristly hairy, somewhat connate and apparently regularly toothed. The hypericums gener- ally appear to be now about done. I see none.

P. M.— To Harris’s Mill, Acton, with Father. Aster levis apparently in prime; very handsome its long, slanting, broad-topped wands by the roadside, even in dry soil, its rays longer and richer purple than usual. See a flock of pigeons dash by. From a stout breast they taper straightly and slenderly to the tail. They have been catching them a while. William Monroe is said to have been the first who raised teasels about here. He was very sly about it, and fearful lest he should have competitors. At length he lent his wagon to a neighbor, who discovered some teasel seed on the bottom, which he carefully saved and planted, and so competed with Monroe.

P. M.—By boat to Conantum, barberrying. Diplopappus linarwfolvus in prime. River gone down more than I expected after the great rise, to within some eighteen inches of low-water mark, but on account of freshet I have seen no Bidens Becki nor chrysanthe- moides nor Polygonum amphibium var. aquaticum in it, nor elsewhere the myriophyllums this year. The witch- hazel at Conantum just begun here and there; some may have been out two or three days. It is apparently later with us than the fringed gentian, which I have supposed was out by September 7th. Yet I saw the witch-hazel out in Brattleboro September 8th, then ap- parently for a day or two, while the Browns thought the gentian was not out. It is still a question, perhaps, though unquestionably the gentian is now far more gen- erally out here than the hazel. Lespedezas, violacea, hirta, Stuvei, etc., —at Blackberry Steep, done. Sol?- dago cesia in prime at Bittern Cliff Wood. The barberries are not fairly turned, but I gather them that I may not be anticipated,—a peck of large ones. I strip off a whole row of racemes at one sweep, bending the prickles and getting as few leaves as possible, so getting a handful at once. The racemes appear unusually long this season, and the berries large, though not so thick as I have seen them. I con- sider myself a dextrous barberry-picker, as if I had been born in the Barberry States. A pair of gloves would be convenient, for, with all my knack, it will be some days before I get all the prickles out of my fingers. I get a full peck from about three bushes. Scared up the same flock of four apparent summer ducks, which, what with myself, a belated (in season) haymaker, and a fisherman above, have hardly a resting-place left. The fisherman takes it for granted that I am after ducks or fishes, surely. I see no traces of frost yet along the river. See no pontederia fall, for they are covered with water. The Cornus sericea is most changed and drooping. Smila- cina berries of both kinds now commonly ripe, but not so edible as at first, methinks.

Am surprised to find the Polygonum Pennsylvanicum abundant, by the roadside near the bank. First saw it the other day at Brattleboro. This makes, as I reckon, twenty polygonums that I know, all but cilenode and Virginianum in Concord. Is not this a late kind? It grows larger than the Persicaria. Observed an Aster undulatus behind oak at foot of hill on Assabet, with lower leaves not heart-shaped, but thus: Gathered eureka just half a bushel of barberries on hill in less than two hours, or three pecks to-day and yesterday in less than three hours. It is singular that I have so few, if any, competitors. I have the pleasure also of bringing them home in my boat. They will be more valuable this year, since apples and cranberries are scarce. These barberries are more than the apple crop to me, for we shall have them on the table daily all winter, while the two barrels of apples which we lay up will not amount to so much. Also, what is the pear crop to the huckleberry crop ? They make a great ado about their pears, those who get any, but how many families raise or buy a barrel of pears all told? The pear crop is insignificant com- pared with the huckleberry crop. The one does not concern me, the other does. I do not taste more than six pears annually, and I suspect the majority fare worse than I, but nature heaps the table with berries for six weeks or more. Indeed the apple crop is not so important as the huckleberry crop. Probably the apples consumed in this town do not amount to more than one barrel a family, but what is this to a month or more of huckleberrying for every man, woman, and child, and the birds into the bargain? They are not unprofitable in a pecuniary sense. I hear that some of the inhabitants of Ashby have sold two thousand dollars’ worth the past season.

Melvin says that there are many teal about the river now. Rain in afternoon. Rain again in the night, hard.

P. M. — To Cliffs. Asclepias Cornutt discounting. The seeded para- chutes which I release soon come to earth, but prob- ably if they waited for a stronger wind to release them they would be carried far. Solidago nemoralis mostly done. Aster undulatus in prime, in the dry woods just beyond Hayden’s, large slanting, pyramidal pani- cles of some lilac-tinged, others quite white, flowers, size of Diplopappus linariifolius. Solidago altissima past prime. Prinos berries. I hear of late faint chewink notes in the shrubbery, as if they were meditating their strains in a subdued tone against another year. A. dumosus past prime. Am surprised to see on top of Cliffs, where Wheeler burned in the spring and had cut rye, by a large rock, some very large perfectly fresh Corydalis glauca, still well in bloom as well as gone to seed, two and a half feet high and five eighths of an inch thick at base. There are also many large tufts of its glaucous leaves on the black burnt ground which have not come to flower, amid the rye stubble. The bumblebees are sucking its flowers. Beside the young oak and the sprouts, poke-weed, erechthites, and this corydalis even are common there. How far is this due to the fire, aside from the clearing? Was not the fireweed seed sown by the wind last fall, blown into the woods, where there was a lull which caused it to settle? Perhaps it is fitted to escape or resist fire. The wind which the fire creates may, perchance, lift it again out of harm’s way. The Asclepras, ob- tusifolia is turned yellow. I see its often per- fectly upright slender pod five inches long, thus: On top of Cliff, behind the big stump, a yellow white goldenrod, var. con- color, which Gray refers to Pennsylvania, ap- parently with the common. That is a great place for white gold- enrod, now in its prime and swarming with honey-bees. Scare up turtle doves in the stubble. Uva-ursi berries quite ripe. Find, for first time in Concord, Solanum nigrum, berries apparently just ripe, by a rock northwest of corydalis. Thus I have within a week found in Con- cord two of the new plants I found up-country. Such is the advantage of going abroad, —to enable [you] to detect your own plants. I detected them first abroad, because there I was looking for the strange. It is a warm and very hazy day, with wreaths of mist in horizon. them, ready to be wafted some dry and breezy day to their destined places. Saw, in the cow-killer on railroad, a small moun- tain-ash naturalized!