84 MOSSES. 



stood to admire at every point of beauty, but did not 

 seek mosses. He was a foreigner, forming one of a large 

 ] >arty at the principal hotel, where our "pursuit of 

 botany under difficulties " formed a subject of mirth at 

 that day's dinner-table. We saw and gloried in the grand 

 rocks and waterfalls and precipitous woods ; and on a 

 low earth-topped wall we found nice plants, less than a 

 quarter of an inch in height, and seeming like naked 

 grains striped on the surface. These we carried home in 

 triumph. The lens showed them like microscopic 

 cabbages, surrounded by long, narrow, grass-shaped 

 leaves, the urn shaped like a cone, and. forming the heart 

 of the cabbage (Diphyscium foliosum, Plate V.,Jig. 6). 



Pursuing our path one day through the Billy Bank 

 wood, we passed along a couple of fields, and came upon 

 the hillock called the Eound Howe. There the rocks 

 and the river form a kind of circus, and in the midst of 

 the area thus enclosed, the hill rises. The legend of the 

 country is, that when the giants made the neighbouring 

 hill, they had a spadeful of earth too much and tossed it 

 down in this spot, so forming the Eound Howe. Half of 

 the hillock is wooded, and is an excellent place for wild 

 flowers. But we did not linger there, being bent on 

 finding mosses. In the thick wood which we next 

 entered, the ground was carpeted with ferns, mosses, and 

 lichens, and we hastened to gather specimens of the 

 AVavy-leaved Hair Moss. 



The large group of Hair Mosses is characterised by 

 the spreading of the point of the central column which 

 connects all the teeth of the fringe, but there are exceptions 

 to this habit, where other points of agreement entitle the 



