EPPING FOREST. 



ITS MOSSES. 



" Beneath the birch with silver bark, 

 And boughs so pendulous and fair, 

 The brook falls scattered down the rock 

 And all is mossy there." 



Coleridge. 



The majority of those who come to the Forest 

 confine their visits to the summer months, leaving 

 its glades comparatively deserted in what, to my 

 mind, are the two most beautiful periods of the 

 year — May, when the birches and beeches put on 

 their tender green, and again when, in the late 

 autumn, the same leaves turn to bronze and gold, 

 contrasting with the lustre of green moss and the 

 spotted beauties of the fungus family. 



The mosses only begin to put forth their most 

 brilliant greens and feathered growth when other 

 vegetation is withered and dead, and it is in what 

 are generally known as the dull months that many 

 of them are in the most interesting stage to the 

 naturalist and collector — viz. in fruit. These 

 plants lend themselves more readily than any 

 other to the art of mounting and preserving, as 

 they retain their brilliancy of colour for many 

 years, and their delicacy and variety of form are 



