190 



ORDER HEPATIC^. 



theca is ripe, and 

 has thrown oft' its '^ ^ 

 other parts, often 

 appear around its 

 edge ; g the bar- 

 ren or staniinate 

 flower of a moss. 

 The mosses are 

 mostly perennial 

 and evergreen, 

 and capable of 

 growing in colder climates than most other vegetables. In 

 Spitzbergen, the rocks which rise from the surrounding ice are 

 thickly clothed with moss. A botanist who traveled in Green- 

 land, counted more than twenty different species of moss with- 

 out rising from a rock where he was seated. 



" Mosses and Ferns," says Thornton, an English botanist, " by the inconsiderate 

 mind, are deemed a useless or insignificant part of the creation. Thus much -we 

 are certain of, with respect to mosses, that as they flourish most in winter, and at 

 that tune cover the ground with a beautiful green carpet, in many places which 

 would otherwise be naked, and when little verdure is elsewhere to be seen ; so at 

 the same time, they shelter and preserve the seeds, roots, germs, and embryo 

 plants of many vegetables, which would otherwise perish. They furnish materials 

 for birds to baild their nests with, they afford a warm winter's retreat for some 

 quadrupeds, such as bears, dormice, and the like, and for numberless insects which 

 are the food of birds and fishes, and these again the food or delight of men. Many 

 of them grow on rocks and barren places, and by rotting away afford the first prin- 

 ciples of vegetation to other plants, which never else could have taken root there. 

 Others gi'ow in bogs and marshes, and by continual increase and decay, fill up and 

 convert them into fertile pastures, or into peat-bogs, the source of inexhaustible 

 fuel to the polar regions. They are applicable also to many domestic purposes. 

 The Lycopodmms are used in the dyeing of yarn, and in medicine ; the Sphagnum. 

 (peat-moss) and Folytrichimi furnish convenient beds for the Laplanders, and 

 the Hypmmis are used in the tiling of houses, stopping crevices in walls, packing 

 brittle wares and the roots of plants for distant conveyance. To which may be 

 added, that all in general contribute entertainment and agreeable instruction to 

 the contemplative mind of the naturalist, at a season when few other plants offer 

 themselves to his view. The Fungi have been suspected by some to be, like 

 sponges and corals, the habitations of some unknown living beings, and being alka 

 line, have been classed in the animal kingdom ; but they are known to produce 

 see'ds, from which perfect plants have been raised ; and the celebrated Hedwig, 

 by great dexterity of dissection, and by using microscopes of very highly magnify- 

 ing powers, assures us that he has discovered both stamens and pistils, not only in 

 this order of plants, but in the other orders of the Cryptogamous family."* 



287. Order Ilejjatwm (Liverworts)— containsyy'(9nf7<95'<?, or moss- 

 like plants, which are more succulent or juicy than the mosses; 

 they have four-valved thecse, which circumstance, and that of 

 their not opening with a lid, distinguish them from the mosses. 



• Notwithstanding the weifjht which Thornton gives to the opinion. of Hedwig and others, it is, at 

 present, much doubted by naturalists, whether the Fungi have organs analogous to stamens and pistils. 



Explain Fi<;, 160 — Mosses capable of enduring cold — a. Remarks of Thornton. 



Liverworts. 



