190 FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



upwards and lift the membrane over the brim of the vessel. If 

 the wind then shakes the capsules on their tall, brown stalks, 

 their contents pour out, and a cloud of yellowish or greenish 

 powder (the spores) is carried away to some spot where a new 

 colony of Mosses may now spring up. 



4. Distribution and Classification of Mosses. — The Mosses are 

 more conspicuous in the mountainous parts of India than in the 

 plains. Those in the plains are dwarfed as the conditions there 

 do not favour their regular growth. They come during the 



monsoon and wither with the cessation of 

 rain. The commonest in the low^ lands are 

 Oarckea, growing on the earth, about half 

 an inch high, and having the spore-capsule 

 hidden in the terminal leaves of the stalk; 

 Hyophila, growing chiefly on laterite rocks 

 with very short stems and slender spore- 

 capsules about one inch high; Calymperes, 

 Fi*'- 175 -Garckea ^^^ ^^^^ bark of trecs, Very short and re- 

 producing itself by forming buds from the 

 tips of its leaves; Fissidens, a minute plant with Fern-like pro- 

 strate leaves. The commonest hill Mosses are terrestrial Poly- 

 trichum, Piloj)ogo7i, Pogonahmi, and the epiphytic Thamnium, 

 Peuzifjiella, Meteoriopsis, Papillaria, etc. An allied group of 

 plants are the Liverworts (Hepaticw) which, together with the 

 leafy Mosses (Musci), form the division Bryophyta. 



5. Importance of the Mosses in the Household of Nature. — 

 Mosses play a very important part in the housoliold of Nature. 

 First of all, the Mosses are among the ^rs^ settlers on bare rocks. 

 Being very small plants they content themselves with the small- 

 est amount of earth, collected in the crevices or uneven parts of 

 rocks; the old parts of the Mosses die off, form vegetable mould, 

 and thus continually increase the little amount of humus in 

 which they rooted at first. They thus gradually form a soil in 

 wliich other, more highly developed plants can grow. 



We have seen that Mosses generally grow not as single plants, 

 but in groups, thus forming extensive, soft cushions. These 

 cushions absorb and retain, the rain-ivater like sponges and give 



