CHAP. II. MOSSES. 207 



from the centre of which the fructification springs, 

 but furnished for the most part with a stem and 

 branches on which the leaves are closely imbricated, 

 and the fructification terminal or lateral. They are 

 perennials and herbaceous, approaching to shrubby ; 

 or annuals, though rarely so, and wholly herbace- 

 ous, the perennials being also evergreens. 



Their most favourite habitats are bleak and barren And 

 soils, such as mountains, heaths, woods,, where they 

 are found not only rooted in the earth, but attached 

 also to the roots and trunks of trees, and even to 

 the flinty rock ; or immersed in bogs and ditches, 

 or floating, though fixed by the roots, in streams of 

 running water. As they affect the most barren 

 soils, so they thrive best also in the coldest and 

 wettest seasons. In the drought of summer they 

 wither and languish ; but in the more moderate 

 temperature of autumn they begin to recruit, so 

 that even the chilling cold of winter that deprives 

 other plants of their verdure and foliage, and 

 threatens destruction to the race of vegetables, tends 

 but to refresh and revive the family of the Mosses. 

 Hence their capacity of retaining moisture for a 

 great length of time without discovering any ten- 

 dency to putrefaction, 7 and of recovering their ver- 

 dure when moistened with water, even after having 

 been completely dried and kept in a dried state for 

 many years. From the extreme minuteness of 

 their parts they are apt to be overlooked by the 



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