CHAPTER XL 



{< From giant oaks that wave their branches dark, 

 To the dwarf moss that clings upon their bark, 

 Wliat beaux and beauties crowd the gaudy groves, 

 And woo and win their vegetable loves V* 



GROUP of very handsome mosses nearly allied 

 to the Bryums, succeeds that extensive family. 

 They are distinguished from them in being called 

 Thyme Thread mosses (mnium), they have generally large 

 transparent leaves, and they make their new shoots from 

 the lower part of the stem, not from the summit. With a 

 view to collecting some of these, my friends directed me to 

 a copse between the river and the road, near Gunnerside. 

 Under some bushes, upon a very moist bank, I had the 

 delight of discovering a very large moss ; its stems were 

 tall, and surrounded with long strap-shaped transparent 

 leaves, the vein along the centre being very pronounced ; 

 my pocket lens showed me that these leaves were jagged 

 at the edge. Little branches grew from the tops of many 

 of the stems in a cluster, and there were long creeping 

 shoots also ; a number of fruit-stalks rose from the sum- 

 mits of three or four of the plants, and the urns were still 

 upon them, though the fruit had evidently been ripe 

 months before. It was a much larger plant than any of 

 the Thread mosses — even than the Rose Thread moss — 



