C 32 3 

 FERNS IN THE WOODS 



May 26, 1853. Now is the time to walk in low, 

 damp maple copses and see the tender, luxuriant 

 foliage that has pushed up, mushroom-like, before 

 the sun has come to harden it — the ferns of various 

 species and in various stages, some now in their most 

 perfect and beautiful condition, completely unfolded, 

 tender and delicate, but perfect in all their details, 

 far more than any lace-work — the most elaborate 

 leaf we have. So flat, just from the laundry, as if 

 pressed by some invisible flat-iron in the air. Un- 

 folding with such mathematical precision in the free 

 air, — green, starched and pressed, — ^might they not 

 be transferred, patterns for Mechlin and Brussels.'' 



Journal, v, 190. 



FLOWERING DOGWOOD {CORNUS FLORIDA) 



May 27, 1853. The Cornus florida now fairly out, 

 and the involucres are now not greenish-white but 

 white tipped with reddish — like a small flock of 

 white birds passing, — three and a half inches in 

 diameter, the larger ones, as I find by measuring. 

 It is something quite novel in the tree line. 



Journal, v, 192. 



May 24, 1858. To New York by railroad. All 

 through Connecticut and New York the white invo- 



