3!) FOOTNOTES FffOM 



ing a capsule, the teeth of which are closed, near the fire 

 or in the warm sunshine, the teeth will be seen to open 

 with a graceful and gradual motion ; while the slightest 

 moisture of one's breath invariably causes the little teeth 

 instantly to close over the mouth. This beautiful and 

 extremely simple mechanism, of which a somewhat simi- 

 lar example occurs in the Rose of Jericho, is one of the 

 most wonderful contrivances of nature, one of the most 

 extraordinary adaptations of means to an end, to be 

 found in the whole economy of vegetation. Within the 

 capsule the seeds surround a slender pillar or columella, 

 and are enclosed in a membraneous bag. Elevated as 

 the seed-vessels are by their stalks, they are freely ex- 

 posed to the ripening effects of sun and wind ; and it is 

 a curious sight to- see these straight footstalks gradually 

 bending, reversing the seed-vessels, and emptying the 

 seeds they contain as from a pitcher, to be carried by 

 the wind to some congenial spot, where through course 

 of time they may spring up and form a new colony of 

 mosses, which in their turn will carry on the circle of 

 life, from the seed to the full-grown moss, and from the 

 full-grown moss to the seed, the beginning and the end- 

 ing, the ending and the beginning ! 



Besides these curious capsules, there are other organs 

 of fructification which clearly demonstrate the sexuality 

 of mosses. Their real nature has only recently been 

 accurately ascertained. They are called antheridia and 

 pistilidia, from the strong resemblance which they bear 

 to the stamens and pistils of the flowering plants, and 

 from their being supposed to perform the same or ana- 

 logous functions. They are small spherical bodies, fixed 



