38 



The stalks on which the seed vessels are supported are 

 short and slender, of a reddish colour, scarcely an 

 inch high, and arising out of an oval bulb at the bot- 

 tom ; one of them is given in the annexed plate mag- 

 nified, that the parts may be more distinctly seen. 

 The seed vessel, which is called a capsule, is urn- 

 shaped, with a lid, which when taken off exhibits a 

 margin fringed with numerous teeth. Upon the 

 nunfeer of these teeth a celebrated naturalist 15 has 

 founded a new arrangement of this tribe of plants. By 

 the aid of a microscope he has discovered that there is 

 an invariable uniformity in the number of these teeth 

 in the same species. That there should be such an 

 absolute law in the ceconomy of nature in so minute 

 a production is infinitely interesting to the contempla- 

 tive mind. 



Mosses are found in the hottest and coldest climates. 

 They are extremely tenacious of life; and after being 

 long dried, by moisture they easily recover their full 

 vigour of vegetation. Those mosses which grow on 

 barks of trees take much nourishment from them; 

 hence it is observed, that trees which are annually 

 cleared from moss grow nearly twice as fast. 



>rdei i. REIN-DEER LICHEN. Upon this vegetable 



the numerous herds of rein-deer, the only riches of 

 the sequestered Laplander, are entirely dependant 

 for their winter food. In that remote region it grows 



* Hedwig. 



