8 HISTORY OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



much service in purifying the waters amidst which they vege- 

 tate. In such situations also, as well as in other localities, 

 they afford food and lodging to innumerable tribes of insects 

 and molluscs, some of which are rather dainty in their fare, 

 for we are informed by one author of the destruction of a 

 fine set of specimens of the rare Buxhaumia aj^hjlla by a 

 slug that had managed to secrete itself in a parcel of these 

 transmitted from the Highlands of Scotland to an English 

 friend. It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers of the 

 service they yield to the feathered tribes and to various qua- 

 drapeds, especially such as are dormant during the cold sea- 

 son of the year. 



There is one process in the economy of nature to which 

 the agency of Mosses — the genus Sphagnum more particu- 

 larly — lends a most direct aid, and to the consideration of 

 which, on that account, we should perhaps have directed 

 attention before some other matters. I refer to tlie forma- 

 tion of Peat-moss in the bogs or morasses which occupy a 

 great space in the British Islands, and in other countries in 

 the same or more northern latitudes. 



Tliose who have resided in such districts, at a distance 

 from coal-fields, know how dependent the inliabitants are 

 for their whiter supply of fuel on these stores ; but how few 



