11 July 1853 – 17 July 1853

Rain last night. The aromatic trichostema now springing up. Gna- phalium uliginosum now. Hydrocotyle, some days. ‘Agrimony, also, some days. Button-bush. Centaurea nigra, some time, Union Turnpike, against E. Wood’s, low ground, and Ludwigia alternifolia, apparently just begun, at entrance to poke-logan near Assabet Bathing-Place. The small crypta already in fruit. I find in the river, especially near the Assabet Bathing- Place, a ranunculus some of whose leaves are capil- lary, others merely wedge-cut or divided. Is it not the R. aquatilis?! But I see no flowers.

White vervain. Checkerberry, maybe some days. Spikenard, not quite yet. The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis at Azalea Brook will soon flower. Either Gymnadenia tridentata or Platanthera flava. Cuircea alpina (?) there, but nearly eighteen inches high. Lycopus Virginicus, not open in shade; probably in a day or two. Wood horse-tail very large and handsome there.

Heavy fog. I see a rose, now in its prime, by the river, in the water amid the willows and button-bushes, while others, lower on shore, are nearly out of bloom. Is it not the R. Carolina? Saw something blue, or glau- cous, in Beck Stow’s Swamp to-day; approached and discovered the Andromeda Polifolia, in the midst of the swamp at the north end, not long since out of bloom. This is another instance of a common experi- ence. When I am shown from abroad, or hear of, or in any [way] become interested in, some plant or other thing, I am pretty sure to find it soon. Within a week R. W. E. showed me a slip of this in a botany, as a great rarity which George Bradford brought from Wa- tertown. I had long been interested in it by Linnzeus’s account. I now find it in abundance. It is a neat and tender-looking plant, with the pearly new shoots now half a dozen inches long and the singular narrow revolute leaves. I suspect the flower does not add much to it. There is an abundance of the buck-bean there also. Holly berries are beginning to be ripe. The Poly- gonum Hydropiper, by to-morrow. Spergula arvensis gone to seed and in flower. A very tall ragged orchis by the Heywood Brook, two feet high, almost like a white fringed one. Lower ones I have seen some time. The clematis there (near the water-plantain) will open in a day or two. Mallows gone to seed and in bloom. Erigeron Canadensis, butter-weed.

Common form of arrowhead. The Rumex obtusifolius shows its single grain now. Near Loring’s ram that coarse mustard-like branched plant, one or two feet high, with racemes of small yellow flowers, — perhaps Gray’s Nasturtium palustre or Bigelow’s Sisymbrium amphibium, — in seed and in blossom.

Rhus copallina behind Bent’s, budded, not quite open. Solidago stricta (?) at Cato’s cellar, a day or two. The pasture thistle, more than a week. Is it the Potamogeton heterophyllus in Walden, now in flower and for some time? Door-grass.

The common amaranth. Young toads not half an inch long at Walden shore. The smooth sumach resounds with the hum of bees, wasps, etc., at Water- target Pond. I see two great devil’s-needles, three inches long, with red abdomens and bodies as big as hummingbirds, sailing round this pond, round and round, and ever and anon darting aside suddenly, probably to seize some prey. Here and there the water- targets look red, perhaps their under sides. A duck at Goose Pond. Rank weeds begin to block up low wood-paths, — goldenrods, asters, etc. The pearly everlasting. Lobelia inflata. The Solidago nemoralis (? ) in a day or two,—gray goldenrod. I think we have no Hieracium Gronovii, though one not veined always and sometimes with two or more leaves on stem. No grass balls to be seen.