I. MOSS. 13 



tence of Louis Figuier's, about the particular species, 

 Hypnum : 



" These mosses, which often form little islets of verdure 

 at the feet of poplars and willows, are robust vegetable 

 organisms, which do not decay." * 



3. " Qui ne pourrissent point." What do they do with 

 themselves, then ? it immediately occurs to me to ask. 

 And, secondly, If this immortality belongs to the Hyp- 

 num only ? 



It certainly does not, by any means : but, however mod- 

 ified or limited, this immortality is the first thing we ought 

 to take note of in the mosses. They are, in some degree, 

 what the " everlasting " is in flowers. Those minute green 

 leaves of theirs do not decay, nor f all! 



But how do they die, or how stop growing, then ? it is 

 the first thing I want to know about them. And from all 

 the books in the house, I can't as yet find out this. Mean- 

 while I will look at the leaves themselves. 



4. Going out to the garden, I bring in a bit of old 

 brick, emerald green on its rugged surface, f and a thick 

 piece of mossy turf. 



First, for the old brick : To think of the quantity of 

 pleasure one has had in one's life from that emerald 

 green velvet, and yet that for the first time to-day I am 

 verily going to look at it ! Doing so, through a pocket 



* " Histoire des Plantes." Ed. 1865, p. 416. 



f The like of it I have now painted, Number 281, CASE xn., in the 

 Educational Series of Oxford. 



