6 July 1857 – 12 July 1857

Rubus triflorus well ripe. ‘The beach plums have everywhere the crescent-shaped mark made by the curculio, —the few that remain on.

P. M. — To Laurel Glen. A chewink’s nest with four young just hatched, at the bottom of the pyrola hollow and grove, where it is so dry, about seven feet southwest of a white pine. Counted the rings of a white pine stump, sawed off last winter at Laurel Glen. It was three and a half feet [in] diameter and has one hundred and twenty-six rings. Chimaphila umbellata, apparently a day or two. I find the Pyrola secwnda only on the point of expanding. Hear apparently redstarts there, — so they must have nests near,—also pine warblers and till tilts. Later. —To Gowing’s Swamp. The Gaylussacia dumosa is now in prime at least. The drosera, round and spatulate leafed, is very abun- dant and handsome on the sphagnum in the open spaces, amid the Andromeda calyculata and Polifolia. Find a Pogonia ophioglossoides with a third leaf and second flower an inch above the first flower. Edith Emerson shows me Oldenlandia purpurea var. longifolia, which she saw very abundantly in bloom on the Blue Hills (Bigelow’s locality) on the 29th of June. Says she has seen the pine-sap this year in Con- cord.

Could see no yellow wasps about the nest over my window at 6 a. M., but did just before 6.30.! I hear of still a second nest at Mrs. Brown’s and one at Julius Smith’s. Another Attacus Promethea, a male from the same young black birch, was out and on the window this morning. @.v. I dipped the body into alcohol before it had fairly spread its wings, but so discolored it, 7. e. the white line with dots on the side of the abdomen. I see that the seeds of the Salix nigra gathered on the catkins on the 7th, or two days since, put in tum- blers of water in my window, have already germi- nated! and show those two little roundish green leaves. P. M. — Up Assabet with Sophia.

Put some more black willow seed in a tum- bler of water at 9.30 a. m. P. M. — To Pratt’s and Peter’s. One flower on the Solanum nigrum at Pratt’s, which he says opened-the 7th. He found, about a week ago, the Botrychium Virginianum in bloom, about the bass in Fever-bush Swamp.’ I see some lupine still in bloom, though many pods have been ripe some time. The tephrosia, which grows by Peter’s road in the woods, is a very striking and interesting, if I may not say beautiful, flower, especially when, as here, it is seen in a cool and shady place, its clear rose purple contrasting very agreeably with yellowish white, rising from amidst a bed of finely pinnate leaves. Bigelow calls the flowers “very beautiful.” At evening I watch to see when my yellow wasps cease working. For some time before sunset there are but few seen going and coming, but for some time after, or as long as I could easily see them ten feet off, I saw one go forth or return from time to time.

P. M.— To Corner Spring and Cliffs. Haying is fairly begun, and for some days I have heard the sound of the mowing-machine, and now the lark must look out for the mowers. The flowering fern, which is so much larger in the copses, though much is brown and effete, is still perhaps in prime. Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum ripe. Their dark blue with a bloom is a color that surprises me. ‘The cymbidium is really a splendid flower, with its spike two or three inches long, of commonly three or five large, irregular, concave, star- shaped purple flowers, amid the cool green meadow- grass. It has an agreeable fragrance withal. I see more berries than usual of the Rubus triflorus in the open meadow near the southeast corner of the Hubbard meadow blueberry swamp. Call it, perhaps, Cym- bidium Meadow. They are dark shining red and, when ripe, of a very agreeable flavor and somewhat of the raspberry’s spirit. Petty morel not yet, by the bars this side Corner Spring; nor is the helianthus there budded yet. Apocynum cannabinum, with its small white flowers and narrow sepals half as long as whole corolla, apparently two or three days. The trumpet- weed is already as high as my head, with a rich glau- cous bloom on its stem. Indeed, looking off into the vales from Fair Haven Hill, where a thin blue haze now rests almost universally, I see that the earth itself is invested with a glaucous bloom at this season like some fruits and rapidly growing stems. Thermometer at 93° +- this afternoon. Am surprised to find the water of Corner Spring spoiled for the present, however much I clear it out, by the numbers of dead and dying frogs in it (Rana palustris). ‘There is a mortality among [them] which has made them hop to this spring to die. There is an abundance of corydalis on the top of the Cliffs, but most of it 1s generally out of bloom, 1. e. ex- cepting a twig or two, and it is partly withered, not so fresh as that in our garden; but some in the shade is quite green and fresh and abundantly blooming still.

P. M.— To Equisetum hyemale. Those little minnows, a third or half inch long or more, which I catch when bathing, hovering over open sandy spaces, as here at Clamshell, appear to be little shiners. When left dry on my hand, they can toss themselves three or four inches with a spring of their tails, and so often get into the water again. Small as they are, it is rather difficult to catch them, they dodge your hands so fast.