UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 259 



through the grass round them, and growing in 

 tufts of long crowded shoots ; he told me that 

 those long crowded shoots mark that species, 

 and he shewed me the brown fibres by which 

 they cling to the trees ; and the leaves which 

 grow in double rows, ending in little crooked 

 hairs ; he called it the trailing feather moss. 

 He seemed to take as much pleasure in explain- 

 ing a thousand things about them as I did in 

 listening. How stupidly I had walked up and 

 down there, and never cast my eyes on the 

 beautiful structure of these little plants! We 

 then examined several lichens, some in tufts 

 hanging from the branches of trees and bushes, 

 or encircling them with their crisp flat leaves \ 

 others covering the stems with an odd white 

 crust; while on the damp earth beneath we 

 found the cup lichen in deep sea-green patches, 

 displaying its tiny cups like fairy wine-glasses. 



*' On those stones," said my uncle, " you may 

 trace the beginning of all vegetation, from the 

 little black spots, which are scarcely discernible, 

 to the larger lichens and mosses of different 

 forms and sizes. Or, let us turn to the grassy 

 bank, and you may there see a great number 

 of herbaceous plants still green, mixing with that 

 useful grass, the creeping bent, which throws out 

 fresh pasture at this late season from the joints 

 of its runners or stolones." 



He shewed me many of these plants ; and 



