I. MOSS. 



17 



b~ 



and this unbroken, though unfinished, gift of the noble 



labour of other people, the Flora Danica, 



I can generalize the idea of the precious 



little plant, for myself, and for the 



reader. 



All mosses, I believe, (with such ex- 

 ceptions and collateral groups as we may 

 afterwards discover, but they are not 

 many,) that is to say, some thousands of 

 species, are, in their strength of exist- 

 ence, composed of fibres surrounded by 

 clusters of dry spinous leaves, set close to 

 the fibre they grow on. Out of this leafy 

 stem descends a fibrous root, and ascends 

 in its season, a capped seed. 



We must get this very clearly into our 

 heads. Fig. 2, A, is a little tuft of a com- 

 mon wood moss of Norway,* in its fruit 

 season, of its real size ; but at present I 

 want to look at the central fibre and its 

 leaves accurately, and understand that 

 first. 



10. Pulling it to pieces r we find it com- 

 posed of seven little company-keeping 

 fibres, each of which, by itself, appears as 

 in Fig. 2, B : but as in this, its real size, it 



\ 



< / 



""M !\ 



FIG. 2. 



' Dicranum cerviculatuxn, * sequel to Flora Danica, Tab. MMCCX, 



