38 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



on the common, between the brown and no longer beautiful heaths, 

 peeps up the bright green of the moss. 



Collecting mosses for study and preservation in the herbarium, 

 is an interesting and delightful occupation, but particularly fasci- 

 nating when the collector becomes a cultivator as well. To find 

 them we must visit the wildest and grandest natural scenes — the 

 mountain top, the rocky defile, the romantic waterfall, the dark and 

 lonely bog, the purling stream, that " makes a silence in the hills," 

 as well as the quiet peaceful hedgerow and ruinous wall. The 

 great advantage of growing mosses over many other subjects, is the 

 small space required for growing a good collection, and the compa- 

 ratively small amount of skill required in their management. And 

 for those who do not aim at a complete collection, and are satisfied 

 with clumps of each species, a goodly variety may be had for the 

 trouble of gathering from old damp walls and heagerow banks. 



I think that few subjects would repay the cultivator better than 

 the mosses, or be more suitable for growing, where the only space 

 for following horticultural or florieultural pursuits consists of a 

 small back-yard, overshadowed with other houses. A really fine 

 collection may be grown in a space ten feet square, and the shade 

 from surrounding objects would be just what the mosses require, 

 and render any expense for providiug shade unnecessary. To grow, 

 or attempt to grow, a lot of soft-wooded stuff in back-yards where a 

 glimpse of sunshine scarcely ever penetrates, invariably ends in 

 vexatious disappointment, and sadly discourages the cultivator in 

 his florieultural pursuits. 



A mossery of the size I have named would furnish a fund of 

 amusement throughout the whole year, for those who are engaged 

 in other pursuits, and in many instances would be sufficient to 

 employ all the leisure time they have to spare in attending to them. 

 It is this class of lovers of the beauties of nature, which are most 

 directly connected with plant life, that I ask to seriously consider 

 whether it would not be more profitable to embark in an under- 

 taking of this kind, with a certainty of having their labours rewarded, 

 than trying to grow plants which require an abundance of light and 

 air, which in many instances is an utter impossibility for the culti- 

 vator to give them, more especially in the neighbourhood of large 

 towns. 



I am not sufficiently sanguine to expect that moss-growing will 

 ever become popular amongst professional gardeners, for, generally 

 speaking, the gardener has so much to employ his time and atten- 

 tion, that to add to his work will necessitate the neglect of some- 

 thing else. Whilst admitting this, I feel bound to say that there 

 are hundreds of instances where a prettily constructed mossery 

 would be a feature that could be introduced with profit and pleasure 

 to all concerned. It is not only out of doors that the mosses may 

 be grown, for a neatly constructed miniature rockery, covered with 

 several species of Bryum, Polytrickum, Tortula, and several others 

 of distinct character, and covered with a glass shade, would form a 

 beautiful ornament for the drawing-room or front hall. These 

 would be of great value for furnishing objects for the microscope, 



