45 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF MOSSES.. 

 By the rev. H. H. HIGGINS, M.A. 

 The cultivatiou of Mosses has pi'pbably very little to recommend it 

 to notice if it be regarded only in a utilitarian aspect, none of our 

 English species, so far as I am aware, being at all extensively used in 

 this country, either in the arts, or in domestic economy, which may 

 in some measure account for the little that is to be found written upon 

 the subject. Here and there a warm admirer of Nature, even in her 

 lowliest productions, has no doubt long ago found a delight in sheltering 

 and watching a collection of these tiny plants — the author of the 

 " Bryologia Bi-itannica," for example, who the other day sent the wiiter 

 a specimen of a fork moss which had been domesticated for fifteen 

 years : but until the comparatively recent invention of Wardian cases 

 gave a happy impulse to this and many kindred adoptions, mossea 

 were generally known only in their wild state, in the herbaria of the 

 botanists, or as the unwelcome disflgurers of our gravel walks. Yet 

 mosses have certainly many qualifications which give them an advan- 

 tage over most other plants for cultivation, especially amongst the 

 inhabitants of large towns. Some of these I shall now enumerate. 



Their size requires but small space for the cultivation of a consider- 

 able number of species. An ordinary window case might w^ell accom- 

 modate from fifty to a hundred kinds, allowing them to attain their 

 full size and luxuriance. Whereas ferns or other plants, in a similai- 

 situation, must be restricted in their growth, or the number of species 

 must be very limited. 



Their tenacity of life ensures success with a very moderate degi'ee 

 of attention to their wants. In fact they are grateful little creatures, 

 and reward the care bestowed upon them by readily putting on their 

 best and freshest looks, as if they were mindful their protector in none 

 of his walks should see any mosses looking better or prettier than his 

 own. 



Their neighbourly habits place them within the reach of the collector 

 in an ordinary walk. Instead of applying to the florist, or incurring the 

 expense of importing plants from distant regions, he has only to pass 

 the boundaries of the streets in any direction, and he will find them all 

 around liim. The screw moss and the silver thread moss will not even 

 need his stooping to secure them ; they wait for him upon the wall, at 

 the level of his eye. The heather mosses, in profusion, creep along 

 the bottom of the hedges, or scale the trees, or steep their foliage in 

 the running streams. The beardless mosses are on every bank ; the 

 hair mosses are sure to be found in the stone quarry : or if the collector 



