^be IRetgn of tbe ITmmortals 199 



There are little tracks on the soft snow, left by small 

 animals not yet gone to winter qnarters, and perhaps 

 we find a dead fly or bee or moth, a late lingerer 

 overtaken by the cold. 



What has winter to show us ? 



First the lichens ; these flourish as in summer 

 time; possibly the dearth of flowers makes, their 

 green, gray, and black, with the scarlet and yellow 

 lighting them up here and there, seem even richer 

 and more' beautiful than at other times. Long-lived 

 and irregular in the matter of their ^n'oductive 

 periods, all seasons are alike to them. 



The mosses are also as beautiful as ever ; brush 

 the snow from the dark velvet-like cushions of green, 

 covering decaj^ed wood, or carpeting the spaces about 

 the thick trees. Dark green, light green, under a 

 microscope they show many variations in their little 

 bright sessile leaves, closely packed along the main 

 stems. Shooting up here and there we find slim 

 brown or reddish stalklets with a tiny cone-shaped 

 object at the top. This is capped by something 

 comically like an old-fashioned candle extinguisher. 

 The wee urn is the spore case, full of green spore 

 powder, which is kept from falling out too soon by 

 that extinguisher-like lid. Also the spores are 

 further protected and prevented from escaping in 

 damp weather by a row of little teeth about the 



