112 MOSSES. 



called Dryopteris. It creepeth upon the ground, having 

 divers long brandies, consisting of many small leaves, 

 every particular leaf made up of sundry little leaves, set 

 upon a middle rib, one opposite to the other." This moss 

 is very frequent in our woods, but it is rare in fruit. I 

 have found it with urns near Eoss, and beautiful specimens 

 from the neighbourhood of Carlisle. 



The Triangular-leaved Feather moss was there too (H. 

 triquetrum, Plate VI I I., Jig. 5), it is familiar to most people 

 as the moss generally used in packing. You buy it 

 in London dyed a coarse colour ; and you see it fastened 

 to paper flowers to represent the calyx leaves. It is a 

 handsome moss ; its stems grow five or six inches high, 

 and its triangular leaves turn back ; this moss also is 

 but rarely found in fruit ; our Silkwood plants, however, 

 bore abundant urns. 



Closely allied to this, and nearly as abundant, is the 

 Eambling Mountain Feather moss (H. loreum), it is less 

 rigid in its habit, and more slender, its branches are 

 pinnate, the branchlets drooping, and the leaves are 

 smaller and more crowded. It is also frequent in the 

 Swaledale woods. 



We were about to leave the wood, when I observed a 

 mat of what I imagined to be a dead moss ; the leaves 

 were arranged on each side the stem, so as to present a 

 flat surface ; they were large and oval, and much waved 

 and crisped ; in colour it resembled a Bog moss. A great 

 number of chestnut-coloured urns garnished the spare 

 interlacing branches ; these were dry, having been ripe 

 in May, and were furrowed. Marian assured me that 

 the whitish colour was as much a mark of the Waved 



