THE MOSS FAMILY, 489 



tion, and patient and repeated dissection of tlie reproductive parts, are 

 absolutely indispensable to the young muscologist. Ordinarily the 

 term " moss" is applied to any little plant of compact and tufted habit, 

 to the stonecrop for example, to saxifrages, and even to lichens. 

 Strictly, it belongs only to those pretty little green genera of Cor- 

 mogens made so familiar by their abundance everywhere upon the 

 ground and on trees and walls, and for the most part distinguished by 

 their iirn-like thecte, elevated on long stalks as fine as hair. (Figs. 215, 

 216, 221.) In substance the mosses are wholly cellular ; their height 

 seldom exceeds three inches, and is generally much less ; and though 

 many species have distinct and branching stems, copiously dressed 

 with foliage and thecce, as in Fig. 221, a large portion consist of a 

 simple tuft of radical leaves and a central fruit-stalk, the whole 

 presenting the miniature figure of a tulip. In this latter case the 

 individuals grow densely crowded together, forming bright green or 

 yellowish silky patches, which are often ten or twelve inches in 



Fig. 215. 

 Leskea polyantha. 



diameter. They are found in every part of the world, but most 

 abundantly in temperate and cold countries, and growing in every 

 conceivable situation. Many, such as the tall and elegant Hypmmis, 

 or feather-mosses, select moist and shady banks, and sequestered woods 

 and doughs, loving especially to sit down on the roots and stumps of 

 aged trees ; others, such as the Tortulas, plant themselves in luxuriant 

 and glowing forests on the tops of walls ; while the Sphagmims, or 

 bog-mosses, fill vast tracts of swamp and morass, forming broad, elastic 

 beds, pea-green in the centre, where filled with moisture, and at the 

 edges withered and pallid, and when dry, fading almost to white. 

 (Fig. 219.) Not a few select the margins of waterfalls, where they 

 can be incessantly bathed with spray, and mingle their pretty foliage 

 with that of the golden-saxifrage, and other haunters of the fountain- 

 side ; mountain rocks, especially in their chinks and crevices ; half 

 submerged stones in rivers and brooks, dry moors and heaths, road- 



