48 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



What a small event may alter the whole current of 

 a life, and make or mar its future ! 



We are unable to furnish any extensive catalogue 

 of notable mosses, and their historical associations, 

 but there may be a few which are notable in other 

 ways, and especially for properties which they possess, 

 or are credited with possessing. We remember 

 none which have even found a place in domestic 

 medicine, or had the reputation of effecting a mar- 

 vellous cure. Only one indigenous little species has 

 been invested with the mystery of shining in the 

 dark. 



The pretty little moss Schistostega osimmdacea is 

 often quoted as exhibiting exceptional properties of 

 refraction, and some have said of phosphorescence. 

 It loves the shade of caverns, "which are sometimes 

 lighted by a golden-green gleam from the refraction 

 of the confervoid shoots." This is, perhaps, the most 

 careful way of stating the phenomenon. Others say 

 that " the young plant, when growing in caves, emits 

 a beautiful golden-green light." It appears that the 

 confervoid prothallus was formerly described by 

 Bridel as an alga, and it was long supposed to be 

 phosphorescent, but this error was at length dispelled, 

 and the luminous appearance is now believed to arise 

 from " the condensation and reflection of the little 

 daylight admitted, by the pellucid convex cellules of 

 the prothallium." 



Other mosses have been specially alluded to for 

 possessing unusual hygroscopic propensities. This 

 is observed more especially in the beautiful fringe of 

 teeth which surround the mouth of the capsule. So 



