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MOSSIIOUSES. 299 
Mo’rna.— Composite. — Beauti- 
ful half-hardy annuals, with ever- 
lasting flowers, which should be 
raised®on a hotbed, and planted out 
in May. 
Mossuouses are constructed of 
wood lined with rough boards, to 
which Moss, either of one or of 
different kinds, is attached by cor 
or wire, and nails. The roof is 
also covered with boards, to which 
other times heath, or the mossy bark 
of oak, pine, birch, or other old 
The floor is generally paved 
with blocks of wood, or sometimes 
with small pebbles, or any other 
material, according to fancy. ‘The 
ceilings are generally lined with 
moss in the same manner as the 
side walls, and both may be formed 
into panels according to the taste 
of the designer. 
many kinds of Moss and Lichens 
which may be used for lining moss- 
houses. Of terrestrial Mosses, those 
which are most common are the 
Dicranum glaicum, which is of a 
whitish green, and Bry‘um hérnum, 
which is of a yellowish green; 
Sphagnum acutifolium is of a pink- | 
ish colour, and S. obtusifolium is | 
of a yellowish white. The eG, 
mon Tree Mosses, or technically 
Lichens, are Cendmyce rangiferina, | 
the Reindeer Moss. which is found 
on tne Ash, and on many other 
trees, and is white. This Moss also 
grows in great abundance on poor 
gravelly soils, among heath, for ex- 
ample, on Bagshot Heath, near 
London. Any quantity of the green 
mosses, and also of the yellow 
kinds, may be purchased in Covent 
Garden market; and the Reindeer 
Moss, if ordered from local nursery- 
is fixed sometimes thatch, and at 
There are a great | 
MOULD. 
somest mosshouses in England 
have been erected in Bagshot Park, 
the seat of the Duchess of Glouces- 
ter, by Her Royal Highness’s very 
intelligent gardener, Mr. Toward. 
Mosshouses must not be confounded 
with roothouses, which are formed 
with fantastic roots, or with wood- 
houses, which are formed witi 
branches of trees with the bark on. 
When a mosshouse is to be erected, 
the first thing to be done is to make 
a drawing of the effect that it is in- | 
tended to produce, and then to 
prepare the frame. If the moss- 
house is to be only a kind of alcove 
open in front and without windows, 
it will be easy to get some wocd, 
and any man-servant who can use 
a saw and a hammer can put it 
together; but if it is to have a door 
and windows, a regular carpenter 
must be called in. Inthe first case, 
young Pine and Larch trees that 
have been cut down in thinning 
plantations will do very well. When 
the framework is completed, lathes 
must be nailed across the compart- 
ments, between which the moss is 
thrust with a wooden knife, or blunt 
chisel, the root end being lowest. 
The great art consists in arranging 
the moss so as to form a pattern; 
and this is accomplished by sorting 
the moss into heaps of the different 
colours, tracing the pattern rudely 
on the lathes, and keeping a co- 
loured copy of the design before 
the operator. ‘The moss should be 
so contrived as completely to hide 
the lathes, and it should also be 
pushed in to a sufficient depth to be 
quite firm. The lines of the figure 
should be quite distinct, and 
colours clear, and well contrasted. 
Movu.ip.—Thoroughly decompos- 
men adjoining heaths, may be col-|ed leaves or putrescent manure, 
lected by the same persons who| mixed with sand or other light soil, 
supply them with the other Mosses.|is called mould, which is chiefly 
Almost every thing in an affair of | distinguished from soils by its con- 
this kind must be left to the fang anny but a small portion of earthy 
of the designer. Some of the hand- ‘matter: hence we have leaf-mould, 
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