42 FOOTNOTES FROM 



trichum commune), which is the strongest and wiriest 

 of the British mosses, often covers large tracts of moor- 

 land, in moist places, and frequently attains a height 

 of between two and three feet. In Lapland it forms 

 almost the only verdure of the plains, and is occa- 

 sionally used by the inhabitants when on long journeys 

 for a bed, a large portion of the mossy turf, cut from 

 a neighbouring spot, being employed as a covering. 

 V' The fountain apple-moss (Bartramia fontana) also grows 

 j in great profusion wherever it occurs. It completely 



V 



. fills up the sources of springs, for many yards around, 

 with a bright green deceptive verdure, through which 



L the unwary foot sinks into the coldest water and the 

 blackest mud. The course of Alpine streamlets, near 

 their commencement, may be traced for a considerable 

 distance by the beds of this moss, through which the 

 waters languidly flow. But of all the members of this 

 family the Sphagna 1 or bog mosses are the most social. 

 They are everywhere most abundant on heaths and 

 mossy soils, where they spread in such immense masses 

 that they give a singularly light appearance to the whole 

 moorland landscape ; and by the accumulation of their 

 remains fill up the beds of ancient lakes, bogs, and 

 marshes, with dense, spongy, continuous cushions, of a 

 pale green, dirty white, or dark red colour. This is the 

 principal moss in the marshy plains of Lapland, and 

 within the whole of the Arctic Circle; and nothing can 

 be more dreary and desolate than the scenery where this 

 moss exclusively prevails. Melville Island, the most 

 western point ever navigated in the Polar Sea, though 



1 See Frontispiece. 



