MOSSHOUSES. 



205 



MOSSHOUSES. 



orcMdeoiis epiphyte, -with dark- 

 purple flowers, from the Spanish 

 Main. It should be gro"mi on a 

 piece of wood. — See Orchideous 

 Epiphytes, 



Mo'r>'a. — Compositce. — Beauti- 

 ful half hardy annuals, with ever- 

 lasting flowers, which should be 

 raised on a hotbed, and planted out 

 in May. 



MossHousES are constructed of 

 wood lined with rough boards, to 

 which moss, generally of several 

 different kinds, is attached by cord 

 or wire, and nails. The roof is also 

 covered with boards, to which is 

 fixed sometimes thatch, and at 

 other times heath, or the mossy 

 bark of oak, pine, birch, or other 

 old trees. The floor is generally 

 paved with blocks of wood, or some- 

 times with small pebbles, or any 

 other material, according to fancy. 

 The ceiling is 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. There are a great 

 many kinds of Moss and Lichens 

 which may be used for lining moss- 

 houses. Of terrestrial Mosses, those 

 which are most common are the 

 Dicranura glaucurii, which is of a 

 whitish green, and Bryum Jwnium, 

 which is of a yellowish green ; 

 Sphdr/num acutifdlium is of a pink- 

 ish colour, and S. obtusifdlium is of 

 a yellowish white. The commonest 

 Tree Moss, or technically Lichen, 

 is Cenomyce rangiferina, the Eein- 

 deer Moss, which is found on the 

 Ash, and on many other trees, and 

 is white. This jMoss also grows in 

 great abundance on poor gravelly 

 soils, among heath ; for example, 

 on Bagshot Heath, near London. 

 Any quantity of the green mosses, 

 and also of the yeUow kinds, may 

 be purchased in Covent Garden 

 Market : and the Eeindeer Moss, if 



ordered from local nurserymen ad- 

 joining heaths, may be collected by 

 the same persons who supply them 

 with the other Mosses. Almost 

 everything in an afiair of this kind 

 must be left to the fancy of the 

 designer. Some of the handsomest 

 mosshouses in England have been 

 erected in Bagshot Park, the seat of 

 the Duchess of Gloucester, by her 

 Royal Highness' s very intelligent 

 gardener, INIr. Toward. !Mosshouses 

 must not be confounded with root- 

 houses, which are formed with fan- 

 tastic roots, or with wood houses, 

 which are formed with branches of 

 trees with the bark on. When a 

 mosshouse is to be erected, the first 

 thing to be done is to make a draw- 

 ing of the efi'ect that it is intended 

 to produce, and then to prepare the 

 frame. If the mosshouse is to be 

 only a kind of alcove open in front 

 and without windows, it will be 

 easy to get some wood, 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. In the first case, young Pine 

 and Larch trees that have been cut 

 down in thinning plantations will 

 do very well. When the framework 

 is completed, laths must be nailed 

 across the compartments, 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 diff'erent colours, 

 tracing the pattern rudely on the 

 laths, and keeping a coloured copy 

 of the design before the operator. 

 The moss should be so contrived as 

 completely to hide the laths, and it 

 should also be pushed in to a suffi- 

 cient depth to be quite firm. The 

 lines of the figure should be quite 



