in Thoreau’s Journal:

I perceive the scent of the earliest ripe apples in my walk— How it surpasses all their flavors…

in Thoreau’s Journal:

Rhexia very common on those bare places on the river meadows from which the soil has been moved by the ice….

I hear that the coralhoriza odontorhiza (coral root) is out.

in Thoreau’s Journal:

See the blue-herons opposite Fair H. hill as if they had bred there.

This & the last day or 2 very hot….There is very little air over the water & when I dip my head in it for coolness—I do not feel any coolness. The Eupatorium sessilifolium has been out a day or two on the side hill grove at Bittern Cliff….Chelone Glabra also.

Chelone glabra (white turtlehead) August 11, 2016

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

Some fiat has gone forth & stilled the ripples of the lake—each sound & sight has acquired ineffable beauty.

in Thoreau’s Journal:

4 1/2 Am to Cliffs— A high fog— As I go along the RR—I observe the darker green of early mown fields— A cool wind at this hour over the wet foliage—as from over mt tops & uninhabited earth. The large primrose conspicuously in bloom. does it shut by day?

in Thoreau’s Journal:

Walden Published. Elder berries XXX.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

Men have perchance detected every kind of flower that grows in this township—have pursued it with children’s eyes into the thickest & darkest woods & swamps where the faintest color has betrayed it.

Have they with the like thoroughness plucked every flower of thought which it is possible for a man to entertain—proved every sentiment which it is possible for a man to experience—here? Men have circumnavigated this globe of land and water but how few have sailed out of sight of land over the ocean of knowledge!

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

Trillium berry

in Thoreau’s Journal:

I do not hear this morning the breathing of chip birds—nor the song of robins. Are the mornings now thus ushered in—are they as spring-like? Has not the year grown old. Methinks we do ourselves at any rate some what tire of the season–& observe less attentively and with less interest the opening of new flowers—and the song of the birds– It is the signs of the fall that affect us most. It is hard to live in the summer content with it.

in Thoreau’s Journal

Now then the river’s brim is in perfection after the mikania is in bloom & before the Pontederia & pads & the willows are too much imbrowned….

It is one long acclivity from winter to midsummer—& another long declivity from midsummer to winter….

The Pontederia leaves have but a short life the spring so late & fall so early.

in Thoreau’s Journal

The swamp blackberry on high land ripe a day or 2.

August 3, 2016 Photo

 in Thoreau’s Journal

A splendid entire rainbow after a slight shower….outermost broad red—passing through yellow to green then narrow red—then blue or indigo (not plain what) then faint red again.

It is too remarkable to be remarked on.

 in Thoreau’s Journal

It is a new era with the flowers when the small purple fringed orchis as now is found in shady swamps standing along the brooks. (It appears to be alone of its class— Not to be overlooked it has so much flower though not so high colored as the Arethusa).

July 30, 2016: Photo along the Red Hill River, Sandwich, NH, USA

August 1, 1852 in Thoreau’s Journal

The small rough sun flower helianthus divaricatus tells of August heats….

May it not stand for the character of August?

Found a long dense spike of the Orchis psycodes— Much later this than the great orchis—the same only smaller & denser—not high colored enough

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August 1, 1860 in Thoreau’s Journal

How much of beauty–of color as well as form–on which our eyes daily rest goes unperceived by us! No one but a botanist is likely to perceive nicely the different shades of green which the open surface of the earth is clothed–not even a landscape painter if he does not know the species of sedges and grasses which paint it.

 in Thoreau’s Journal

Saw but one Lysimachia stricta left in the meadows—the mead. sweet meadows.

 in Thoreau’s Journal

Photos: July 30, 2016

A small purple orchis Platanthera psyches––quite small––so that I perceive what I call by this name before must have been the fimbriata.

in Thoreau’s Journal

At Veronia meadow I notice the beds of horse-mint now in flower—bluish whorls of flowers now in its prime. Now is the time to gather thoroughwort. Cardinals are in their prime.

July 28, 2016: Cardinal Flower

The Hibiscus is barely budded but already the mead hay mowers have sheared close to it. Most fields are so completely shorn now that the walls & fence sides where plants are protected appear unusually rich. I know not what aspect the flowers would present if our fields & meadows were untouched for a year….How large a proportion of flowers for instance are repressed to & found by hedges walls & fences.

 in Thoreau’s Journal

Solidago Altissima?

beyond the corner bridge out some days at least—but not rough hairy Golden rod & asters have fairly begun

i.e. there are several kinds of each out.

Photos:  July 27, 2016

in Thoreau’s Journal

I observe grape vines with green clusters almost fully grown hanging over the water—& hazel nut husks are fully formed & are richly autumnally significant. Viburnum denatum elder—& red-stemmed cornel—all with an abundance of green berries help clothe the bank—and the asclepia incarnata & meadow rue fill the crevices. Above all there is the Cardinal flower just opened—close to the water’s edge—remarkable for its intense scarlet color—contrasting with the surrounding green.

in Thoreau’s Journal

Almost Every bush now offers a wholesome & palatable diet to the wayfarer—large & dense clusters of v. vacillances—largest in most moist ground sprinkled with the red ones not ripe—

Great high blue berries—some nearly as big as cranberries—of an agreeable acid—huckleberries of various kinds some shining black—some dull black—some blue—& low black berries of 2 or more varieties.