Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/389

 2ET.40.] TO MARSTQN WATSON. 363

I discovered two new plants in Concord last winter, the Labrador Tea (Ledum latifolium), and Yew (Taxis baccata).

By the way, in January I communicated with Dr. Durkee, whose report on Glow-worms I sent you, and it appeared, as I expected, that he (and by his account, Agassiz, Gould, Jackson, and others to whom he showed them) did not consider them a distinct species, but a variety of the common, or Lampyris noctiluca, some of which you got in Lincoln. Durkee, at least, has never seen the last. I told him that I had no doubt about their being a distinct species. His, however, were luminous throughout every part of the body, as those which you sent me were not, while I had them.

Is nature as full of vigor to your eyes as ever, or do you detect some falling off at last ? Is the mystery of the hog s bristle cleared up, and with it that of our life ? It is the question, to the exclusion of every other interest.

I am sorry to hear of the burning of your woods, but, thank Heaven, your great ponds and your sea cannot be burnt. I love to think of your warm, sandy wood-roads, and your breezy island out in the sea. What a prospect you can get every morning from the hilltop east of your house ! 1 I think that even the heathen that I

1 Marston Watson, whose uncle, Edward Watson, with his