THE PAGE OF NATURE. 27 



more distinct from each other than are those of the 

 mosses. Indeed, so remarkable and so constant is this 

 dissimilarity, that it has formed one of ^ the principal 

 bases of their arrangement and classification; and the 

 botanist who has studied them thoroughly can identify 

 under the microscope, in some cases, the smallest frag- 

 ment of a leaf, although almost invisible to the naked 

 eye. The leaves of some mosses are quite plain and 

 pellucid, exhibiting no structural arrangement whatever ; 

 others are furnished with a nerve which runs through 

 the centre and terminates above or below the apex; 

 some are either ribbed and notched like a saw on the 

 edge, or quite plain and even; and others present the 

 most beautiful and varied net-work of cells. Some are 

 linear like miniature pine-needles, others ovate and round 

 like the leaves of our common deciduous trees. The 

 harmonies of colours are beautifully exhibited in their 

 appendicular parts. The stem, in almost all the species, 

 is of a pale wine-red colour, while the leaves are gene- 

 rally of a delicate pea-green hue. In some species the 

 leaves are of the deepest and most vivid green, while 

 their margins and nerves are of a deep blood-red colour. 

 The fruit-stalk and fruit-vessel are sometimes red or 

 orange-coloured, while the leaves are brown; and some- 

 times dark brown, when the leaves are of a golden yellow. 

 Unlike the leaves of ferns, which are mere foliaceous 

 expansions of the stem, and developed in one plane, the 

 leaves of mosses are quite distinct from the stem, and 

 are arranged around it on all sides, most frequently in 

 an alternate manner, so that a line joining their bases 

 would form a spiral more or less elongated. 



