I. MOSS. 15 



old brick, emerald green on its rugged surface, 

 and a thick piece of mossy turf. 



First, for the old brick : To think of the quan- 

 tity 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 lens of no great power, 

 I find the velvet to be composed of small star- 

 like groups of smooth, strong, oval leaves, — intensely 

 green, and much like the young leaves of any 

 other plant, except in this ; — they all have a long 

 brown spike, like a sting, at their ends. 



5. Fastening on that, I take the Flora Danica,* 

 and look through its plates of mosses, 

 for their leaves only ; and I find, first, 

 that this spike, or strong central rib, 

 is characteristic ; — secondly, that the 

 said leaves are apt to be not only 

 spiked, but serrated, and otherwise 

 angry-looking at the points ; — thirdly 

 that they have a tendency to fold fig. i. 



together in the centre (Fig. 1 f) ; and at last, after 

 an hour's work at them, it strikes me suddenly that 



* Properly, Flone Danicas, but it is so tiresome to print the 

 diphthongs that I shall always call it thus. It is a folio series, 

 exquisitely begun, a hundred years ago ; and not yet finished. 



t Magnified about seven times. See note - at end of this chapter. 



