490 



THE MOSS FAMILY. 



sides and garden walks, all have their peculiar species, some, as with 

 other families, very rare, but the great proportion as plentiful as daisies. 

 No period of the year finds them wholly out of bloom, though winter 

 and spring are the times of their greatest abundance, and there are 

 some of which the thecae come in double harvest. 



The leaves of the mosses are simple, generally oval or lanceolate, 

 very rarely divjded, and usually provided with a midrib composed of 

 smaller and compacter cells. In some, such as the Hookeria, they are 



Fig. 217. 



Phascum curvicollum 

 (magnified). 



Fig. 218. 

 Bnjum argenteum 



Fig. 219. 

 Sphagnum acutifolmm. 



Fig. 2Ui. 

 Polytrichum urnigerum. 



pellucid. The branches of the larger kinds often present a fern-like 

 appearance, and occasionally, as in the Ilypnum alopecunim, spread 

 umbrageously like the boughs of a forest-tree. The characteristic 

 green hue is now and then saturated with gold, as in the magnificent 

 Hypnum splendens, that shines with the yellow brightness of sunset ; 

 but such as grow in streams and ponds arc generally of a dull and 

 lurid hue, and the denizens of mountain rocks are sometimes almost 

 black. 



