[ lOO ] 



LATE GREEN FERNS 



October 31, 1857. In the Lee farm swamp I see 

 two kinds of ferns still green and much in fruit, 

 apparently the Aspidium spinulosum and cristatum. 

 They linger thus in all moist clammy swamps under 

 the bare maples and grape-vines and witch-hazels, 

 and about each trickling spring which is half choked 

 with fallen leaves. What means this persistent vital- 

 ity, invulnerable to frost and wet.? Why were these 

 spared when the brakes and osmundas were stricken 

 down? . . . Even in them I feel an argument for im- 

 mortality. Death is so far from being universal. To 

 my eyes they are tall and noble as palm groves, and 

 always some forest nobleness seems to have its haunt 

 under their umbrage. 



Journal, x, 149, 150. 



POLYPODY 



November 2, 1857. It is very pleasant and cheer- 

 ful nowadays, when the brown and withered leaves 

 strew the ground and almost every plant is fallen 

 or withered, to come upon a patch of polypody on 

 some rocky hillside in the woods, where, in the midst 

 of the dry and rustling leaves, defying frost, it stands 

 so freshly green and full of life. The mere greenness, 

 which was not remarkable in the summer, is posi- 

 tively interesting now. My thoughts are with the 



