92 THE WOODLANDS. 



principally because fashion, that tyrant of modern 

 society, has not yet taken them under protection. 

 Many of them may be cultivated in a similar manner 

 to ferns, but their time has not yet come. 



The fruit of mosses is a capsule, borne at the top 

 of a stalk or stem, which is sometimes almost sup- 

 pressed, and surmounted by a lid or operculum, which 

 falls away and allows the spores to be dispersed. 

 Some species have a branched straggling habit, others 

 are almost reduced to a rosette of miniature leaves, 

 and these generally gregarious. For all the mysteries- 

 of growth, reproduction, and classification, we must 

 refer the reader to the manuals which are specially 

 devoted to this subject. 



Hasselquist considers that the wise king of Israel 

 was conversant with mosses, and that the hyssop on 

 the wall of which he discoursed was a small moss 

 still found growing on the walls of Jerusalem. Be 

 this as it may, the- smallest or the meanest thing is 

 not beneath the consideration of the truly wise. 

 Pascal observed that " man is placed in the middle 

 between the two infinities the infinitely great, and 

 the infinitely little both of which are incomprehen- 

 sible to him." The microscope has helped him to 

 some knowledge of the latter, but only sufficient to 

 expose still more his ignorance, and convince him of 

 how little it is he knows. The microscope may be 

 requisite to understand the structure and minute 

 characters of mosses, but very much may be accom- 

 plished in studying them by the aid of a simple lens. 



That earnest lover of nature, John Ruskin, thus, 

 writes of mosses : " No words that I know of will say 



