CLASS XXIV. 



CRYPTOGAMIA continued. 



Order II. Musci. Linn. Mosses. 



Fructification, so called, of 2 kinds ; Anthers concealed among 

 the leaves ; and Capsules covered, in an early stage, with a 

 calyptra .which bursts transversely and regularly at the base, 

 and rises up with the mostly pedunculated and operculated cap- 

 sule. The operculum, or lid, deciduous in most instances. Mouth 

 of the capsule naked or furnished with a single or double fringe 

 or peristome ; the teeth or cilia in each row 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64. 

 The seeds surround a columella, are enclosed in a membranous 

 bag, and not accompanied by spiral filaments. — Plants of 

 small stature, of a more or less compactly cellular texture, 

 readily reviving, after being dry, by the application of moisture, 

 bearing leaves which are very rarely, indeed, divided, often 

 marked with a central nerve or costa, entire or toothed or serrated 



at the margin Among all the plants of the Class Crypt og a mi a, 



no Order, perhaps, presents a more varied and exquisitely 

 beautiful structure than the Mosses; whether we consider their 

 foliage, their capsules, or the delicate single or double fringe 

 which surrounds the mouth of the latter. They are mostly in 

 perfection in the winter months, and no part of the globe appear- 

 to be entirely destitute of them. Their maximum, however, 

 doubtless exi>N in the temperate and cold climate*.; where they 



invest rocks and trees, especially in a northern exposure, to a con- 

 siderable extent, "affording," says Linnaeus, "a harbour to an 

 immense number of insects, protecting them, lest they should !>•• 

 destroyed by tie' frosts of winter, or l»e parched by the heats 

 of summer, or withered by the vicissitudes of spring, or decayed 



by the damps of autumn :" — so that nothing, we may be assured, 

 not even the minutest vegetable, is made in vain. 



