38 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE A\D PRODUCTIOSH. 



There are other parts of mosses Tvhirh have technical names, such as the smaller 

 leaves about the base of the seia, certain swellings in the spornnffiiim, etc., but into 

 these lesser points, as well as into the various forms which the peristome assumes, I 

 forbear to enter. For those who wish to pursue the study farther, there is no lack 

 of books, though, indeed, I know not any one which shall give a description of all 

 known mosses. 



Of the uses of mosses, looked at from man's ordinary point of view, as furnishing 

 something specially beneficial to himself, I fear there is little or nothing to say. They 

 appear indeed, in this respect, to rank below even the " inutilis alga." But in the 

 economy of nature they are of the highest importance. They go far towards giving 

 the earth her first coating of vegetation, and form a soil in which other plants 

 innumerable are enabled to establish themselves, and find at once support and 

 nourishment, besides protection from the extremes of heat and cokl. Moss-spores 

 are Nature's pioneers in the Vegetable Kingdom. She scatters tliem broadcast on the 

 winds and sows their fertilizing dust over the earth. They fly forth on their errand, 

 invisible, and venture where nothing else as yet can. They climb the precipitous 

 mountain's side and seize on each coign of vantage, settling on eveiy tiny ledge, and 

 creeping into every crevice. They penetrate the deep shade of the forest and pnur 

 their myriads over the tree-trunks. They wander over the bleak moor and gather 

 about its fountain heads, fostering the young springs, and tlirowing over the 

 gi-anite boulders the only garment they will endure. They dive into the recesses 

 of caverns and make the roofs and sides glisten with their translucent atoms.' They 

 grasp the roughness of the barren wall, and cling tenaciously to the smooth roof-tile, 

 and lay the foundation of a garden upon the house-top. They will oven fiy across 

 Africa's arid wastes, and by their bright and unexpected presence instil hojie into the 

 sinking heart of the lonely traveller.' So, as by magic, they spread their green 

 mantle over the face of the eai th, the present home of insect life, and the harbinger 

 to other animals and to man himself of flower and fruit and sustenance. 



We come now to Order and Arrangement. 



No one system appears to have met with the general approval of Bryologists. 

 That adopted in tlie old !Muscologia Britannica had the merit of simplicity and 

 tolerable facility in the discovery of genera, which perhaps, after all, is the chief 

 object aimed at. 



The main divisions were made wholly to depend on the character of the fniit, 

 little or no regard being paid to vegetative differences. The first Division contained 

 that small groiip whose spore-case splits into valves : the second that with entire 

 spore-cases : the third included those mosses whose spore-cases open with a lid, but 

 have no peristome ; the fourth those which have a single peristome ; the fifth tliose 

 with a double peristome ; while the generic characters turned on the position of th.e 

 fruit, the form of the calyptra, and the number and form of the teetli of the 

 peristome ; while, yet again, the specific differences lay mainly in the disposition and 

 form of the leaves. This arrangement has been abandoned in newer works, as it 

 was thought to link together groups of plants which had not sufficient natural 

 affinity ; and others have been adojjted with a view, if possible, of grouping the 

 species together more naturally. 



"Whether or not this object has been attained in any suflScient measure by any 

 one of the existing systems may well be doubted if we judge from the words of tlic 

 Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who is "facile princeps " in Cryptogamic Botany; he says, 

 " On the whole, the state of Bryology must be considered as extremely imperfect. 

 The entire subject clearly wants the revision of some master-mind." — HaudbooU of 

 British Mosses, 1863, Preface, p. 45. 



The arrangement which he himself adopts in the Handbook " was (he says) 



' Scliistostega pennata or osmimdacca "occurs in several parts of Eufjland ia cavems which are 

 iUuminatcd by a golden-green Light from the refractive property ot its cont'erva-like shoots." — M.J.li. 

 in " Treasury of IJotany." 



* Mungo Park. This celebrated traveller is said to have taken courage at the sight of I'f:si<ftiis 

 hnjoides, a small British moss, when in the heart of Africa. 



