28 FOOTNOTES FROM 



The organs of fructification, however, with which 

 mosses are furnished, are perhaps the most wonderful 

 parts of their economy. When the requisite conditions 

 are present, these are generally developed during the 

 winter and spring months, and may be easily recognised 

 by their peculiar appearance. At first a forest of hair- 

 like stalks, of a pale pink colour, rises above the general 

 level of the tuft of moss, to the height of between one 

 and three inches, giving to the moss the appearance of 

 a pin-cushion well provided with pins. These stalks, 

 through course of time, are crowned with little urn-like 

 vessels called capsules, which are covered at an early 

 stage with little caps, like those of the Normandy peas- 

 ants, with high peaks and long lappets, in one species 

 bearing a remarkable resemblance to the extinguisher of 

 a candle, a curious provision for protecting them alike 

 from the sunshine and the rain, until the delicate struc- 

 tures underneath are matured. When the fruit-stalk 

 lengthens and the capsules swell, this hood or cap is 

 torn from its support, and carried up on the top of the 

 seed-vessel, much in the same way as the calyx of the 

 common garden annual, the Eschscholtzia Californica, is 

 borne up on the summit of the cone-like petals before 

 they expand. When, the seed-vessel is riper it falls off 

 altogether, and discloses a little lid covering the mouth 

 of the capsule, which is also removed at a more advanced 

 stage of growth. The mouth of the seed-vessel is then 

 seen to be fringed all round with a single or double row 

 of teeth, which closely fit into each other, and completely 

 close up the aperture. Tt is a circumstance worthy of 

 being noticed, that the even numbers which prevail iii 



