[OO THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
the liverworts show their direct derivation from the 
Thallophytes, and more especially from the Green Algee. 
The Mosses, which are generally the only ones known 
to the uninitiated—and which, in fact, form the principal 
portion of the whole branch—belong to the second class, 
or Leafy Mosses (Musci frondosi, called Musci in a narrow 
sense, also Phyllobrya). Among them are most of those 
pretty little plants which, united in dense groups, form 
the bright glossy carpet of moss in our woods, or which, 
in company with liverworts and lichens, cover the bark 
of trees. As reservoirs, carefully storing up moisture, they 
are of the greatest importance in the economy of nature. 
Wherever man mercilessly cuts down and destroys forests, 
there, as a consequence, disappear the leafy mosses which 
covered the bark of the trees, or, protected by their 
shade, clothed the ground, and filled the spaces between 
the larger plants. Together with the leafy mosses dis- 
appear the useful reservoirs which stored up ram and 
dew for times of drought. Thus arises a disastrous dryness 
of the ground, which prevents the growth of any rich 
vegetation. In the greater part of Southern Europe—in 
Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Spain—mosses have been destroyed 
by the inconsiderate extirpation of forests, and the ground 
has thereby been robbed of its most useful stores of 
moisture; once flourishing and rich tracts of land 
have been changed into dry and barren wastes. Un- 
fortunately in Germany, also, this rude barbarism is 
beginning to prevail more and more. It is probable that 
the small frondose mosses have played this exceedingly 
important part in nature for a very long time, possibly 
from the beginning of the primary period. But as their 
