462 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



chambers wherein the operation of heating the roasted ore with 

 the chloride might be performed. The lixiviation is a matter of 

 no difficulty, and with regard to precipitating the copper, it would 

 be well to do this quickly, in vats heated by steam, in order to 

 obtain a perfectly pure product. T he evaporation of the waste 

 solutions might be effected by waste heat from the calcining 

 furnaces without any special expense for fuel. In short, there is 

 nothing to prevent its economical application, and in all probability, 

 an establishment for treating copper ores in this manner will 

 shortly be established in connection with one of our Canadian 

 Mines. 



Actonvale, January 11th, 1869. 



ON THE ORGANISATION OF MOSSES. 



By R. Braituwaite, M.D., F.L.S. * 



In former times many of the smaller cryptogamic plants were 

 termed mosses, and although no order of plants is better denned 

 or more readily recognized, the name is still vulgarly applied to 

 lichens, as Iceland Moss, Cup Moss, and the shaggy forms growing 

 on old trees ; to algae as Irish Moss ; and even to some fungi. 

 But the plants we have to consider are the mosses par excellence 

 Musci veri, or frondosi, as they have been termed, to distinguish 

 them from the Musci hepatici, or liverworts. 



By the ancients this group was but little regarded, for then 

 plants were sought after on account of their real or supposed medi- 

 cinal virtues ; yet they had a Muscus cranii humani, or moss of a 

 dead man's skull, which no doubt in the days of signature medi- 

 cine was found of great service in head complaints. The first 

 special work on the subject is the Historia Muscorum of Dillenius, 

 published in 1741, remarkable for the excellence of its engravings, 

 and containing also lichens and algse. 



Linnaeus enumerates many mosses in his Species Plantarum, 

 but he seems to have paid little attention to cryptogamic plants, 



* Read before the Queckett Microscopical Club, June 28th, lcS07, and 

 cited from Science- Gossip. 



