466 



MUSCI. 



[part II. 



ORDER CCXVI MUSCI.— THE MOSS TRIBE. 



The Mosses have fibrous roots, and slender 

 wiry stems, densely covered with leaves, which 

 are very small, and laid over each other like 

 scales (see a mjig. 149). The theca {g) is urn- 



FiG. 149. — C'ryptogamous Plants 



shaped, and it is produced singly ; in most cases, 

 on a long, slender, wiry stem, called a seta, 

 which signifies a bristle, but sometimes without 

 any stalk. It always springs from a tuft of 

 leaves, differing both in size and shape from 

 ordinary leaves, which form what is sometimes 

 called the perichsetium. Among these may 

 occasionally be seen a few stalks, resembling the 

 Lichen called Cup-moss, which terminates in a 

 kind of cup, and thickened at the base. The 

 cups and upper parts soon die away, and the 

 thicker part left among the leaves swells, and 



