28 June 1858 – 4 July 1858

P. M. — To broom. The erect potentilla is a distinct variety, with dif- ferently formed leaves as well as different time of flow- ering, and not the ‘same plant at a different season. Have I treated it as such? The Genista tinctoria has been open apparently a week. It has a pretty and lively effect, reminding me for some reason of the poverty-grass. Mountain laurel on east side of the rocky Boulder Field wood is ap- parently in prime. I see in many places little barberry bushes just come up densely in the cow-dung, like young apple trees, the berries having been eaten by the cows. Here they find manure and an open space for the first year at least, when they are not choked by grass or weeds. In this way, evidently, many of these clumps of bar- berries are commenced. I notice that the ostrya, when growing in woods, has a remarkable spread for the size of its trunk, more than any tree, methinks. Cymbidium, how long? LEpilobiwm coloratum, how long? We find in the Botrychium Swamp fine wiry asparagus plants, six inches high, with the seeds at bottom, apparently planted by birds, but no plants two years old. There are fertile bayberry bushes fif- teen rods east of yellow birch and six south of apple tree.

P. M. — To Walden. Bathing in the cove by railroad. When I hold my head near the surface and look down, in two or three feet of water, the bottom appears concave, just as the sky does. How interesting the water-target’s slender gelatinous stem and leaves, reminding me of the plants in aquaria!

A. M.—Start for White Mountains in a private carriage with Edward Hoar. Notice in a shallow pool on a rock on a hilltop, in road in North Chelmsford, a rather peculiar-looking Alisma Plantago, with long reddish petioles, just budded. Spent the noon close by the old Dunstable graveyard, by a small stream north of it. Red lilies were abun- dantly in bloom in the burying-ground and by the river. Mr. Weld’s monument is a large, thick, naturally flat rock, lying flat over the grave. Noticed the monument of Josiah Willard, Esq., “Captain of Fort Dummer.” Died 1750, aged 58. Walked to and along the river and bathed in it. There were harebells, well out, and much Apocynum cannabinum, well out, apparently like ours, prevailing along the steep sandy and stony shore. A marked pe- culiarity in this species is that the upper branches rise above the flowers. Also get the A. androsemijolium, quite downy beneath. The Smilacina stellata going to seed, quite common in the copse on top of the bank.

Continued along in a slight rain through Bedford, crossing to Manchester, and driving by a brook in Hookset just above Pinnacle. Then through Allenstown and Pembroke, with its long street, to Lou- don, leaving Concord on the left. Along the sandy roadside in a pitch pine wood in Loudon, much apparent Calystegia spithamea in bloom, but I think with reddish flowers. Probably same with my New Bedford plant.

Sunday. A. M.—Clears up after a rainy night. Get our breakfast apparently in the northern part of Loudon, where we find, in a beech and maple wood, Panax quinquejolium, apparently not quite out, Osmorrhiza brevistylis (or hairy uraspermum), gone to seed, which Bigelow refers to woods on Concord Turn- pike, 2. e. hairy sweet cicely. Also ternate polypody (?). Saw a chestnut tree in Loudon. Leaving Loudon Ridge on the right we continued on by the Hollow Road — a long way through the forest without houses — through a part of Canterbury into Gilmanton Factory village.’ I see the Ribes prostratum, or fetid currant, by roadside, already red, as also the red elder-berries, ripe or red.’ Strawberries were abundant by the roadside and in the grass on hillsides everywhere, with the seeds conspicuous, sunk in pits on the surface. (Vide a leaf of same kind pressed.) The Merrimack at Merrimack, where I walked, — half a mile or more below my last camp on it in 39, — had gone down two or three feet within a few days, and the muddy and slimy shore was covered with the tracks of many small animals, apparently three-toed sand- pipers, minks, turtles, squirrels, perhaps mice, and some much larger quadrupeds. ‘The Solidago lanceolata, not out, was common along the shore. Wool-grass without black sheaths, and a very slender variety with it; also Carex crinita. We continue along through Gilmanton to Meredith Bridge, passing the Suncook Mountain on our right, a long, barren rocky range overlooking Lake Winne- piseogee. Turn down a lane five or six miles beyond the bridge and spend the midday near a bay of the lake. Polygonum cilinode, apparently not long. I hear song sparrows there among the rocks, with a totally new strain, ending whit whit, whit whit, whit whit whit. They had also the common strain. We had begun to see from Gil- manton, from high hills in the road, the sharp rocky peak of Chocorua in the north, to the right of the lower Red Hill. It was of a pale-buff color, with apparently the Sandwich Mountains west of it and Ossipee Mountain on the right. ‘The goldfinch was more common than at home, and the fragrant fern was perceived oftener. The evergreen-forest note frequently heard.