THE PAGE OF NATURE. 45 



one of the most beautiful objects upon which the eye 

 can rest. 



Mosses directly serve very few purposes in the economy 

 of man. They are often employed for packing articles, 

 for which they are admirably adapted ; and Linnaeus in- 

 forms us that the Swedish peasantry fill up the spaces 

 between the chimney and the walls in their houses with 

 a particular kind, which prevents the action of the fire 

 by the exclusion of air. Another species is sometimes 

 employed in the manufacture of mats and brooms. The 

 bog-moss supplies materials for mattresses. The Lap- 

 landers use it instead of clothes for their new-born babes, 

 packing their cradles firmly with it ; and in seasons of 

 scarcity it enters into the composition of their bread. 

 The dense fork moss, when twisted, is used by the 

 Esquimaux for lamp-wicks, a purpose which it very in- 

 adequately performs. But this is about all that can 

 be said of their value to man. In the economy of 

 nature, however, they are extremely useful. They con- 

 tribute to the diffusion and preservation of vegetable life, 

 both by the soil which their decay supplies, and by the 

 shelter which they afford to the roots of trees and plants 

 in very hot or very cold weather. Peat is almost en- 

 tirely composed of mosses. This substance is usually 

 found in great basin-shaped hollows, or valleys among 

 the hills, formerly covered with indigenous forests of 

 birch, alder, and hazel, or with the waters of a moun- 

 tain lake. In the 'former case, the rotting of the fallen 

 trees produced a rich black mould where mosses luxu- 

 riated; these mosses acted like sponges, and absorbed 

 the moisture from the atmosphere, and retained the rains 



