April the 26th. This morning I travelled to Penn’s Neck. The Tulip-trees, especially the tall ones, looked quite green, being covered with their leaves; this tree is therefore one of the earliest which get leaves.
To-day I saw the flowers of the Sassafras-tree, (Laurus Sassafras). The leaves were not yet come out. The flowers have a fine smell.
The Lupinus perennis is abundant in the woods, and grows equally in good soil and in poor. I often found it thriving on very poor sandy fields, and on heaths, where no other plants will grow. Its flowers, which commonly appear in the middle of May, make a fine shew by their purple hue. I was told, that the cattle eat these flowers very greedily; but I was sorry to find very often that they were not so fond of it, as it is represented, especially when they had any thing else to eat; and they seldom touched it notwithstanding its fine green colour, and its softness: The horses eat the flowers, but leave the stalks and leaves. If the cattle eat this plant in spring, necessity and hunger give it a relish. This [[156]]country does not afford any green pastures like the Swedish ones; the woods are the places where the cattle must collect their food. The ground in the woods is chiefly flat, or with very little risings. The trees stand far asunder; but the ground between them is not covered with green sods; for there are but few kinds of grasses in the woods, and they stand single and scattered. The soil is very loose, partly owing to the dead leaves which cover the ground during a great part of the year. Thus the cattle find very little grass in the woods, and are forced to be satisfied with all kinds of plants which come in their way, whether they be good or bad food. I saw for some time this spring, that the cattle bit off the tops and shoots of young trees, and fed upon them; for no plants were yet come up, and they stand in general but very thin, and scattered here and there, as I have just mentioned. Hence you may easily imagine that hunger compels the cattle to eat plants, which they would not touch, were they better provided for. However, I am of opinion, that it would be worth while to make use of this Lupine to mend dry sandy heaths, and, I believe, it would not be absolutely impossible to find out the means of making it agreeable to the cattle. [[157]]
The Oaks here have similar qualities with the European ones. They keep their dead leaves almost during the whole winter, and are very backward in getting fresh ones; they had no leaves as yet, and were but just beginning to shew a few.
The Humming-bird, which the Swedes call Kings-bird[37], and which I have mentioned in a former volume, appeared hereabouts to-day, for the first time this spring.
Numbers of Oil beetles, (Meloë Proscarabœus) sat on the leaves of white Hellebore, (Veratrum album) and feasted on them. I considered them a great while, and they devoured a leaf in a few minutes. Some of them had already eaten so much that they could hardly creep. Thus this plant, which is almost certain death to other animals, is their dainty food.
The fire-flies appeared at night, for the first time this year, and flew about between the trees, in the woods. It seemed, in the dark, as if sparks of fire flew up and down. I will give a more particular account of them in another place.
Towards night I went to Raccoon.
May the 1st. The last night was so cold that the ground at sun-rising was as [[158]]white as snow, from the hoary frost. The Swedish thermometer was a degree and a half below the freezing point. We observed no ice in the rivers or waters of any depth; but upon such only as were about three inches deep, the ice lay to the thickness of one third part of a line[38]. The evening before, the wind was south, but the night was calm. The apple-trees and cherry-trees were in full blossom. The peach-trees were almost out of flower. Most of the forest-trees had already got new and tender leaves, and most of them were in flower, as almost all kinds of oaks, the dog-wood, (Cornus Florida), hiccory, wild prunes, sassafras, horn-beam, beeches, &c.
The plants which were found damaged by the frost, were the following. 1. The Hiccory. Most of the young trees of this kind had their leaves killed by the frost, so that they looked quite black in the afternoon; the leaves were consumed by frost every where in the fields, near the marshes, and in the woods. 2. The black Oak. Several of these trees had their leaves damaged by the frost. 3. The white Oak. Some very young trees of this kind had lost their [[159]]leaves by the frost. 4. The blossoms of the Cherry-trees were hurt in several places. 5. The flowers of the English Walnut-tree were entirely spoiled by the frost. 6. The Rhus glabra. Some of these trees had already got leaves, and they were killed by the cold. 7. The Rhus radicans; the tender young trees of this kind suffered from the frost, and had their leaves partly killed. 8. The Thalictra, or Meadow Rues, had both their flowers and leaves hurt by the frost. 9. The Podophyllum peltatum. Of this plant there was not above one in five hundred hurt by the frost. 10. The Ferns. A number of them, which were lately come up, were destroyed. I must add several plants which were likewise hurt, but which I could not distinguish, on account of their smallness.