44 



CHAPTEE VI. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



" Do not depreciate any pursuit which leads men to contemplate the works 

 of their Creator. The Linnaan traveller, who, when you look over the pages 

 of Ms journal, seems to you a mere botanist, has in his pui'suit, as you have in 

 yours, an object that occupies his time and fills his mind, and satisfies his 

 heart. It is as innocent as yours, and as disinterested,— perhaps more so, 

 because it is not so ambitious. Nor is the pleasure which he takes in in- 

 vestigating the structm-e of a plant less pure, or less worthy, than that 

 which you derive from perusing the noblest productions of human genius." — 

 Southey. 



We have in the Introductory -Chapter taken notwe of the 

 great proportion of space occupied by the Mosses in the 

 temperate and colder zones of the earth, finding that they 

 abound to such an extent as to eradicate, in many instances, 

 the grasses and other plants amid which they grow. In 

 general, wherever moisture and shade is afforded, we find 



