Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/103

 arrangement is peculiar, being neither alphabetical nor by any obvious form of classification, as if he had entered the plants as was most convenient in consulting his Gray’s Manual of Botany, the book usually employed for daily use by the Concord botanizers. Ellery Channing's copy, which I have consulted in revising this list, is full of notes and dates of the blooming of these plants, and occasionally a remark as to their habit. Thus Channing says of the common knot-grass: &quot;How singular that the Polygonum aviculare should grow so commonly and densely about back-doors, where the earth is trodden, bordering on paths, hence properly called "Door-grass," I am not aware that it prevails in any other places.&quot;

But it seems this is quoted from Thoreau, and the date of the remark is August 26, 1859, two years before this western journey.

While collecting these plants, and others new to him, Thoreau made interesting remarks, or raised questions to be settled afterwards. Thus, on the 3rd of June, when going to Minneapolis, and the two lakes, Calhoun and Harriet, where he botanized for