44 FOOTNOTES FROM 



original specimens, to be the little fern-like fork-moss 

 (Dicranum bryoides), l a frequent denizen of moist banks 

 in woods in this country, although, from its very minute 

 size, often overlooked. There is one peculiar species, 

 the cord moss (Funaria hygrometrica), called la cliarbon- 

 niere in France, from its growing in the woods where 

 anything has been burned, and particularly abundant 

 on old walls, whose stem possesses the curious hygro- 

 metric action observable in the teeth of other species. 

 In dry weather it becomes corded, while it uncoils and 

 straightens in moist weather, and thus forms an excellent 

 natural hygrometer. As particular illustrations of the 

 beauty of mosses, which can be perfectly seen and ap- 

 preciated by the naked eye, may be instanced the Splach- 

 num rubrum of the North American bogs, with its large, 

 bright red, flagon-shaped fruit-vessel, and its broad, pel- 

 lucid, soft green leaves; the common long-leaved thyme 

 moss 2 of our own woods, with its exquisite, prominent 

 undulated foliage, like a palm-tree in miniature; and 

 the Neckera crispa, which is perhaps the loveliest of all 

 the species, investing rocks and trunks of trees with 

 its richly-coloured and glossy leaves. When spreading 

 over trees, it is of a dark, dull green colour ; but 

 when occurring on dry lichen-clad rocks, over which its 

 closely -adhering stems and leaves creep for many a 

 yard, it assumes a bright yellowish-green, glossy hue, 

 changing gradually and imperceptibly downwards, until 

 the old leaves become of a singularly rich dark brown 

 or red colour. When the sunbeams and shadows are 

 flickering over its crisped and silken leaves, it forms 



1 See Frontispiece. s Ibid. ~^f 



