in Thoreau’s Journal:

I see the slate-colored snow bird still––a few. What was that large olive-yellow bird on Heywood’s apple trees? The female flower of the Sweet Gale. red–like so many female flowers– The meadow sweet begins to leave out. The male flowers of the maple look yellowish scarlet. looking up to the sky. The elms are still in full blossom. The cowslips’s is a vigorous growth––& makes at present the most show of any flower––

Leaf-stem bud and flower are all very handsome in their place & season.