FERNS, MOSSES, AND LIVERWORTS. 99 



harmony of design which prevail in these small and 

 humble plants. They are without odour to attract, 

 without gaudy flowers to allure, or luscious fruits to 

 entice, not only the pleasure-seeking butterfly and the 

 honey-seeking bee, but even the human lounger in the 

 woods. They appeal not to any power of gratifying 

 the taste or the smell as an apology for existence, but, 

 humbly and without ostentation, perform the task 

 allotted to them in the world. Thus silently, in their 

 myriad forms, scattered from pole to pole, from the 

 burning tropics nearly to the limits of eternal snow, 

 preachers are they, to those whose ears are attuned 

 to their accents, of the wondrous power, the infinite 

 wisdom of the great Father of all. 



Under the name of Liverworts, or Hepaticce?* a 

 small group of plants, similar in some respects to the 

 mosses, are distributed over similar stations. As with 

 the mosses, so some of these are found on the ground, 

 on the bark of trees, on rocks, beside springs and 

 streams, in bogs, &c. Some are sylvan in their habits, 

 others belong to moors and open places. The number 

 of species is small, and their omission would hardly 

 be of importance were it not for the fact that the differ- 

 ence of structure in the fruit is such as even to attract 

 the attention of the non-scientific. 



Passing over the leaves, and the mode in which 

 they are arranged on the stem, those of the family 

 which occur in woods produce capsules which when 

 matured split into four valves or segments, which fall 

 back, and assume a stellate form. These capsules 



Hypnum triquttrum and Hypnum squarrcsum. 

 H 2 



