86 



MOSSES. 



By the side of the hilly path, among Feather Mosses 

 and grass plants, I found a tall Hair Moss with branched 

 stems, narrow leaves and oval urns, its stem was bent at 

 the base, as if it had thought of adopting a creeping 

 habit. These characteristics proved it to be the Alpine 

 Hair Moss (P. alpinum, Jig. 3). 



Passing by the verdant patches of swamp, and not 

 pausing again to examine the thick white carpet of Bog 



moss, I came to where the 

 ling, now in full bloom, was 

 surrounded by a miniature 

 pine forest, each lilliputian 

 tree beino; crowned with a 

 slender stalk a couple of 

 inches in height, bearing a 

 square urn at its summit. 

 Many of these urns were 

 naked, having lost both veil 

 and lid, but a few belated 

 plants still wore the veil, which, thickly covered with 

 hairs, proved its wearer to be one of the Hair mosses. 

 Surely, then, this was the Common Hair Moss 

 (Polytrichuni commune,^. 1,) of which I had heard so 

 much. Even in old Gerarde's time this was a familiar 

 moss ; for he says of it, " This kind of moss, called 

 Muscas capillaris, or Golden Maiden-hair Moss, is 

 seldom found but upon bogs or moorish places, and 

 also in some shadowie ditches where the sun doth 

 not come." This is the moss of which travellers 

 speak as accompanying the Eeindeer moss, and forming 



1. HEDWIGIA. 2. GRIM1IEA. 



3. ORTHOTRICHUM. 



4. POLYTRICHIA!. 



