540 WILD FLOWEES OF 



restores their pristine freshness thus emblematical 

 of the power the slightest change of circumstances 

 has upon the condition of man himself. See the son 

 of genius toiling on his up-hill course, and vainly 

 craving that single drop of patronage that would invi- 

 gorate all his powers ; but it is denied him, and like 

 the parched moss he shrinks into obscurity and 

 neglect. But should the golden shower fall at last, 

 how suddenly he starts up into activity and fame 

 drinks up unsated the vivifying stream, expands all 

 his latent powers, and at a single bound overleaps the 

 unpitied wrongs of years, just as the parched moss 

 rises from its long sleep, to sprout and fructify amidst 

 the teeming moisture. 



Mosses are not furnished with conspicuous flowers, 

 but they are said to be in fruit when certain brown 

 cases appear among them analogous to the capsules of 

 the phanerogamious tribes, and generally elevated on 

 long stalks. These cases are called tJiecce or urns ; 

 their summit is crowned with a calyptra or veil, which 

 covered the theca entirely before the latter lengthened, 

 tore the calyptra from its support, and bore it upon 

 the tip. "When the calyptra has dropped off, the urn 

 is seen closed at its mouth by an operculum or lid, and 

 as the whole becomes mature the lid drops off, disclos- 

 ing in most cases an elegant peristome or fringe, often 

 double, which protects the mouth of the theca, and 

 the teeth of this fringe varies in number from four to 

 sixty-four, but in all cases' is some multiple of four. 

 When at last the minute sporules or seeds within the 

 urn are fully ripe, the fringe withdraws itself, becomes 

 reflex, and allows them to escape into air to be borne 

 upon the wind to rise up as young plants wherever 



