flowering plants, all whose parts and organs are, as it 

 were, sketched out, in anticipation, in these simple and 

 tiny organisms. Through the small densely-cushioned, 

 moss-like alpine flowers, they approximate analogically 

 to the phanerogamous plants in their leaves and habit 

 of growth ; and through the cone-like spikes of the club- 

 mosses, they approximate to the pine tribe in their 

 fructification. From both these classes of highly organ- 

 ized plants, however, they are separated by wide and 

 numerous intervening links. But still it is curious 

 and interesting to find in them an exemplification of 

 the universal teleology of nature the humblest typical 

 forms pointing to the grand archetypes, the simplest 

 structures anticipating and prefiguring the most highly 

 organized and complicated ! 



In no tribe of plants is there so great a similarity 

 between the different species as in the mosses. In them 

 is strikingly displayed the grand characteristic feature of 

 God's work in creation unity of type with variety of 

 development. A simplicity and uniformity of structure 

 runs throughout the entire family. The whole appear- 

 ance, the general air, the manner of growth, is the same 

 in all the species ; so much so, that it is perhaps easier 

 to distinguish a species of moss than a species of any 

 other plant. This remarkable similarity conjoined with 

 remarkable diversity, has led to the popular belief that 

 there is only one kind of moss; all the species, of which 

 no less than 500 exist in this country alone, being con- 

 founded in one general appearance. Minutely and atten- 

 tively examined, however, by an educated eye, their 

 exceeding variableness of form will at once appear, some 



