212 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



other plants from the vicissitudes of winter weather, 

 and by their close texture they prevent the washing 

 away of the soil from the declivities into the valleys. 

 They answer the double purpose of catching the float 

 ing particles of dust and retaining them about their 

 roots, and of preventing any waste from the places 

 they occupy. Finding in them the same protection 

 which is afforded by the snow, or by the matting of 

 straw provided by the gardener, there are many plants 

 that vegetate under their surface, secure from the 

 alternate action of freezing and thawing in winter, and 

 of drought in summer. Hence certain flowers blossom 

 more luxuriantly in a bed of mosses than in the unoc 

 cupied soil. 



The mosses are seldom found in cultivated lands. 

 As they grow entirely on the shallow surface, the labors 

 of the tiller of the soil are fatal to them. They delight 

 in old woods, in moist barren pastures, in solitary moor 

 lands, and in all unfrequented places. In those situa 

 tions they remain fresh and beautiful, while they pre 

 pare for the higher vegetable tribes many a barren spot, 

 that must otherwise remain for ever without its plant. 

 They are therefore the pioneers of vegetable life ; and 

 nature, when she selects an uncongenial tract to be 

 made productive of fruits or flowers, covers the surface 

 with a close verdure of moss, and variegates it with 

 lichens, before she strews the seeds of the higher plants 

 to vegetate among their roots. The wise husbandman, 

 who, by a careful rotation of crops, causes his land to 

 be constantly productive, is but an humble imitator of 

 nature's great principle of action. 



The mosses have never been made objects of exten 

 sive cultivation by our florists. Every rambler in the 

 wild wood knows their value and their beauty, which 



