MOS 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



MOW 



143 



other plants from hot countries. They retain their leaves a 

 great part of the year in the stove. 



Moss. See Muscus. It is divided into many species ; as, 

 Bottle Moss, see Splachnum ; Club and Fir Moss, see Lycopo- 

 dium ; Heath Moss, see Coralloides ; Wall Moss, see Bryum ; 

 Water Moss, see Fontinalis ; &c: 



Moss, is a term frequently used to signify a particular sort 

 of earthy or boggy material, found in some low situations, in 

 different parts of the kingdom, but particularly in the more 

 northern districts, being formed by the decay of different 

 vegetable and other substances. This earthy matter is of 

 different natures in different situations, as wood moss, black 

 peat-moss, flow-moss, or red-bog, &c. The first, which is 

 principally composed of ligneous substances, is probably 

 the best for manure ; and the black peat, which is chiefly 

 composed of heath, decayed sphagnum, and the roots of the 

 eriophora, is the next in the goodness of its properties. The 

 third, which is chiefly derived from the sphagnum in a fresher 

 state, is the least useful. Mosses are of very different depths, 

 textures, and qualities ; but all of them are greatly impreg- 

 nated and loaded with water, holding it like a sponge; some 

 have the depth of not more than three or four feet, while 

 others have as many yards. They require much draining and 

 consolidating to bring them into cultivation. The most cer- 

 tain and short method for the improvement of moss land, if 

 the ground be designed only for grass, and its situation be 

 such as to admit of it, is this : first drain the moss, and, if 

 there be heath upon it ( burn that off", and make the surface 

 even. Then make a dam at the lowest part, and a sluice, 

 and work the water upon it through the winter. The mud 

 which comes with the land-flood will bring a fine sward upon 

 it in two or three years; and be afterwards a yearly manure; 

 so that it will bear annual cutting, and, besides, be good pas- 

 ture for cattle, after the sward is become strong enough to 

 bear them. 



Moss on Trees, a. distemper caused by the moss plant 

 fixing itself upon them ; which is highly prejudicial to the 

 growth and increase of those both of the timber and fruit 

 sorts ; and much damages the fruit of the latter kind. The 

 best remedy is the scraping it off from the body and large 

 branches, by means of a kind of wooden knife that does not 

 hurt the bark, or a piece of rough hair-cloth after soaking 

 rain. But the most effectual cure is to remove the cause, 

 which is the superfluous moisture at the roots of the trees, 

 which should be drained off, and which may be greatly 

 guarded against in the first planting of the trees, by not set- 

 ting them too deep in the ground. In cases where trees stand 

 thick in a cold moist ground, they are always covered with 

 Moss ; and the best way to remedy the fault is to thin them. 

 When the young branches of trees are covered with a long 

 and shaggy Moss, it utterly ruins them; and there is no way 

 to prevent it but that of rubbing it off, or cutting the branches 

 away near the trunk, and even to take off the head of the tree, 

 if necessary; when, if the cause be removed by thinning the 

 plantation or draining the land, the young shoots continue clear 

 afterwards. This disease arises from the Moss plant establish- 

 ing itself upon the trees which are in an unhealthy state of 

 growth, or which have been planted too closely together, by 

 which proper circulation of air and dryness are prevented. The 

 trees are not merely injured by the plants establishing them- 

 selves upon them, and hindering their growth, but probably 

 also by the large proportion of moisture that is attracted, and 

 the dampness induced in consequence of it. In order to pre- 

 vent or remove this evil, Mr. Forsyth advises the washing the 

 trees with a mixture of fresh cow dung, urine, and soap-suds, in 

 order that the establishment of the moss plants may be pre- 

 VOL. n.^78. 



vented, and the bark kept in a fine healthy condition. Where 

 the disease proceeds from an unhealthy state of the trees in 

 consequence of the unfriendly nature of the soil, the speedy 

 removal of the Moss appears to be the only way of saving 

 them from destruction. In some cases the only remedy is to 

 cut down part of the trees, and to plough up the ground 

 between those left remaining, and in the spring of the year, 

 in moist weather, to scrape off the moss with an iron instru- 

 ment made a little hollow, the better to surround the 

 branches, and to carry it off the place : by cleansing the 

 trees thus two or three times together, with carefully stirring 

 the ground, the Moss may be entirely destroyed ; but if part 

 of the trees be not cut down, and the ground well stirred, 

 rubbing off the Moss will signify little ; for the cause not 

 being removed, the effect will not cease, but the Moss will 

 in a short time be as troublesome as ever. 



Mot/ierwort. See Leonurus. 



Moth Mullein. See Verbascum. 



Mould; a vegetable earth, the goodness of which may be 

 known by the sight, smell, and touch. First by the sight : 

 those moulds which are of a bright hazelly colour are counted 

 the best : of this colour are the best loams, and also the best 

 natural earth, and this will be better yet, if it cuts like but- 

 ter, and does not stick obstinately, but is short, tolerably 

 light, breaking into small clods, is sweet, will be tempered 

 without crusting or clipping in dry weather, or turning to 

 mortar in wet. The next to that, the dark grey and russet 

 moulds are reckoned the best ; the light and dark ash-colour 

 are reckoned the worst, such as are usually found on common 

 or heathy ground ; the clear tawny is by no means to be 

 approved ; but that of a yellowish red colour is accounted 

 the worst of all : this is commonly found in the wilds and 

 waste parts of the country, and for the most part produces 

 nothing but Furze and Fern, according as their bottoms are 

 more or less of a light and sandy, or of a spewey gravel or 

 clayey nature. Secondly, by the smell : all lands that are 

 good and wholesome, will, after rain or breaking up by the 

 spade, emit a good smell. Thirdly, by the touch : by this 

 means we may discover whether it consists of substances 

 entirely arenaceous, or clammy ; or, as it is expressed by Mr. 

 Evelyn, whether it be tender, fatty, detersive, or slippery, 

 or more harsh, gritty, porous or friable. That being always 

 the best that is between the two extremes, and does not con- 

 tain the two different qualities of soft and hard mixed, of 

 moist and dry, of churlish and mild, that is neither too 

 unctuous nor too lean, but such as will dissolve, of a just 

 consistence, between sand and clay, and such as will not 

 stick to the spade or fingers upon every flash of rain. A 

 loam, or brick mould, is not to be disapproved, as requiring 

 little help or improvement but the spade, and is esteemed 

 both by the gardener and florist. 



Mountain Ash. See Sorbus. 



Mouse-Ear. See Hieracium and Myosotis. 



Mouse-Ear Chickweed. See Cerastium. 



Mouse-Tail. See Myosurus. 



Mowing. In the mowing of grain crops, such scythes 

 are used as are shorter in the blade than the common ones, 

 and which, instead of a cradle, have two twigs of osier put 

 semi-circularwise into holes made in the handles, near the 

 blades, in such a manner that one semi-circle intersects the 

 other; but for the cutting of grass, longer and thinner scythes 

 are generally in use. In the cutting of grass crops for the 

 purpose of converting them into hay, it is necessary, as a 

 late practical writer states, that they should be in the most 

 suitable states of growth and maturity for affording the best 

 and most nutritious fodder. With this view, it would seem 

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