CHAPTER VI 



MOSSES AND PEAT 



The mosses and liverworts form an isolated family 

 utterly different both from the ferns and from the alga 

 or fungi. 



One would think that the distinct leaf, stem, and 

 reddish or brown root fibres of a moss could be com- 

 pared with the leaves, stems, and roots of the flowering 

 plants, but that is not the case. These leaves and root 

 fibres have been produced by the exigencies of the 

 situation, and have no relationship whatever to the cor- 

 responding parts of a higher plant. 



The whole theory of a moss is quite different and 

 special. It begins life as a branched green threadlike 

 '' protonema," which closely resembles an alga, and on 

 which the small buds appear which are to be its leafy 

 stems. These last are intended to absorb the rain and 

 dew, and especially the dust which falls upon them. 

 One finds the neatest and most ingenious contrivances 

 for catching, and especially for retaining this water. 



Sometimes every leaf-tip is continued into a fine 

 twisting hair ; sometimes the leaf itself resembles a deep 

 spoon or a small soup-ladle, and yet the arrangement of 

 the leaves is so contrived and the shape so modified that 

 they assist one another, not only to keep the water when 

 it falls but to preserve it when they dry up. 



The leaves of the hair moss (Polytrichum, e.g.) not 

 only individually roll or wrap themselves up lengthwise, 

 but they also rise and press themselves against the stem. 



A dry blackish or brown withered tuft of any moss, 



70 



