RAMBLES 



IN 



Szmth of MoimxltBB plants 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MOSSES. 



" The night is mother to the day, 



The winter to the spring. 

 And ever upon old decay 



The greenest mosses cling. 

 Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, 



Through showers the sunbeams fall : 

 For God, who loveth all his works, 



Hath left his hope with all." 



HE next order of Flowerless plants to the Ferns, 

 is the Mosses, a very large group, freely dif- 

 fused in all the countries of the World. 

 There is no distinct flower in the moss, though the 

 organs of fructification are of two kinds ; that in which 

 the seeds are formed is the most conspicuous, and is 

 called an urn. This urn is covered with a veil during 

 its immature period ; the veil falls off before the seed is 

 ripe, and the urn remains closed by a lid. When this 

 lid comes off, the seeds are ripe, and are found arranged 

 round a central column within the urn. The rim of the 



