BRITISH MOSSES. 



Introductory. LORD BACON thought that a Moss was 

 "but a rudiment between putrefaction and a herb." Mr. 

 Buskin thought, and perhaps thinks (he is at war, he tells 

 us, with the botanists), " that the pineapple is really a 

 Moss." People popularly talk of Club-Mosses and Stag- 

 Mosses. Now all these usages of the word may be useful 

 to us when we begin to think about Mosses, if we will 

 make the right use of them, i.e., if we will absolutely 

 reverse them. A Moss is not a rudiment between a 

 putrefaction and a herb, but a delicately, exquisitely 

 organized plant. No possible stretch of the conception of 

 a Moss can make it include a pineapple any more than an 

 elephant ; and the Stag and Club-Mosses of popular speech 

 belong to a group of plants quite different from the Mosses, 

 and of a far higher organization. 



