548 WILD FLOWERS OF 



limmon, hid in perpetual clouds, and blown by never- 

 ceasing blasts. 



The destruction and renovation perpetually taking 

 place throughout nature is apparent in the history of 

 the Mosses. An old decrepid forest becomes decayed, 

 moss-grown, and is at last overthrown by the winds. 

 The rains fall upon its remains, and they are covered 

 and obscured by standing water. Here the Sphagnum 

 or Bog-moss begins to vegetate the waters are by 

 degrees absorbed, and a peat-moss finally formed, from 

 whence the black timber and half-consolidated mosses 

 are dug out, dried, and used for fuel. Thus the 

 bog-moss becomes the instrument of its own de- 

 struction, it forms a pabulum for other plants and 

 flowers to grow in, and at last, by the operation of 

 draining, is converted into fruitful meadow land, or 

 again waves with forest-trees as it did hundreds of 

 years before. 



"Wherever the atmosphere is moist, there Mosses 

 grow in every part of the world, though more com- 

 mon in temperate than tropical climates. They are 

 the first vegetation that begin to dot any new soil 

 with verdure ; careless of snow or rain they push out 

 their leaves and capsules in the most tempestuous 

 weather, and even treasure in the former as materials 

 for fresh soil, the sandy or quartzy particles brought 

 down with the rain. They plunge into the deepest 

 ravines, forming those " shaggy banks," which are 

 the delight of sylvan wanderers ; they rise upon the 

 alps of Germany and Switzerland to the height of 

 5,500 feet, and amidst the eternal snows of Spitz- 

 bergen or New South Shetland, are still seen strug- 

 gling for existence. Trifling and insignificant as they 



