FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN. 253 



the shyness of their liabits, their lonely, retired haunts, in 

 rocky nook or "bosky dell," they speak constantly of se- 

 (juestered solitudes, walks sacred to the wood-jrods, of the 

 isolation and self-sufliciency of nature, and of the mountain 

 spirit, wild and indomitable in all its forms. 



The man who has no memory of fern islands minprled with 

 his boyhood's dreams, has not yet drained all the enchanted 

 goblets of the universe, and may have still the ecstasy of a 

 new experience in the revelation of the delicacy and senti- 

 ment of nature in her most touching attitudes of wildness, 

 sweetness, and seclusion. 



By consulting the catalogue of genera, it will be seen that 

 most of the prominent and interesting forms of the order 

 Filices are represented on the Alleghanies. 



Order Lycopodiace^e, (Club-moss Family.) 



GEXERA. 



I-rycopodium, (Club-moss.) 5 



t^PECIES. 



The species of ground pines, or club-mosses, are found 

 extensively distributed over the mountain in shaded woods 

 and moist places. They are among the most beautiful and 

 striking of the cryptogamic plants. 



AXOPHYTES. 

 Order Musci, (Mosses.) 

 This interesting class of cryptogamic plants is extensively 

 distributed over the world. The greater number require a 

 certain humidity of atmosphere, and they are more numerous 

 in temperate latitudes than the tropics. They are lowly and 

 minute, but graceful and l)eautiful, and are among the first 

 plants which take possession of rocks and sterile soils, — 

 appearing even on volcanic slags and lifeless earth-crusts. 

 Many of them occupy extensive swampy tracts, (the 

 Sphagna,) and form, by their accumulations of leaves and 

 stems, large deposits of carbonaceous mould, (modern for- 

 mula of the coal seam,) while others climb the highest 



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