THE MOSS-LIKE TILLANDSIA. 131 



draws this inference I am at a loss to determine, except that both 

 Tillandsiae and mosses sometimes grow on trees. 



Now comes Ruskin's supreme discovery in this connection. 

 " Next, I find in Gray, Bromeliacese, and — the very thing I want — 

 ' Tillandsia, the black moss, or long moss, which, like most Brom- 

 elias, grows on the branches of trees.' So the pineapple is really 

 a moss; only it is a moss that flowers but 'imperfectly.' 'The 

 fine fruit is caused by the consolidation of the imperfect flowers.' 

 (I wish we could consolidate some imperfect English moss-flowers 

 into little pineapples then— though they were only as big as filberts.) 

 But we cannot follow that further now; nor consider when a 

 flower is perfect, and when it is not, or we should get into morals, 

 and I don't know where else; we will go back to the moss I have 

 gathered, for I begin to see my way, a little, to understanding it." 

 Ruskin is a master of words, and he slides most gracefully from 

 one misunderstanding of facts to another till he persuades himself 

 fully that the pineapple is a moss; and the turning point of it all 

 is that the popular name for this flowering plant, the little 

 Tillandsia, is black moss or long moss, just as the lichen Cladonia 

 is known as reindeer moss, and a seaweed as Irish moss, and 

 so on. 



I trust you will not misunderstand me with regard to Ruskin. 

 He is recognised by all of us as one of the men of genius of the 

 century. His prose is a pleasure to read, a delight lies in it like 

 music, a charm like the singing of birds. He touches many dull 

 things and they gleam like jewels under the light of his genius. 

 In this very book Proserpina there are some most happy expres- 

 sions, delicious conceptions, stimulating suggestions. But here I 

 think we have Ruskin at his worst, overpowered by fancy, 

 led astray by words, grasping at this and then at the other 

 suggestion, having no time to get even at the most rudimentary 

 knowledge of the wide difference between flowering plants and 

 mosses. 



