25–31 May 1857

Yesterday, at the ClifF, with a family party, and Henry Thoreau and Ricketson.' Found the " trailing arbutus,"' and the corydalis.' Henry has found new willows, and has arnLtural salictum, where the seeds gather and plant themselves, near the railroad. Saw the Salix rostrata, discolor, humilis ; I think, he finds fourteen. At this time of the year, the old leaves of the forest are gone, and the new not yet opened, and for a few days the view of the landscape is more open.

Walk this afternoon with Henry Thoreau. Found the perfoliata uvularia ' for the first time in Lincoln by Flint's Pond ; found the chestnut sided warbler, which, I doubt not, I have seen al- ready, and mistaken for t]\Q particolored. Heard the note of the latter, which resembles a locust- sound. Saw the cuckoo. Examined the young oak leaves by way of comparing the black, scarlet, and red, and think the penetrating the bark of the first to find the yellow quercitrum must be for me the final test. Found the chest- nut-oak, in Lincoln, on Thompson's land, not far from his boat-house, near large old chestnuts. Saw the two poplars, grandidentata, and tremu- lifolia, which are both good for the powder- mills. Henry thinks that planting acres of bar- ren sand by running a furrow every four feet across the field, with a plough, and following it with a planter, supplied with pine seed, would be lucrative. He proposes to plant my Wyman lot so. Go in September, and gather white-pine cones with a hook at the end of a long pole, and let them dry and open in a chamber at home. Add acorns, and birch-seed, and pitch-pines. He thinks it would be profitable to buy cheap land, and plant it so. Edward Gardner at Nan- tucket sells the land at an advanced price as soon as he has planted it. It is a woodlot. Henry says, that the Flora of Massachusetts embraces almost all the important plants of America. We have all the willows but one or two, all the oaks but one or two. Furrows, 8 feet apart, and stick a pine along each at every 4 feet.