168 HISTORY OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



capsule oblongo-quadrangular, with an evident apophysis. — 

 Eng. M.p. 49; Miill. Spi. i^t. I.7;. 220. 



On heaths and in woods^ especially on wet sandy soils. 

 Fr. Summer. One of the giants of the tribe^ its size vary- 

 ing from a span to a foot in length. It is generally distri- 

 buted through all the temperate regions of the globe, and 

 varies according to the climate it lives in. The principal 

 variety found in Britain is that named attenuatum in the 

 English Fora. 



We have already, in the introductory chapter, referred to 

 the economical use of this and other Mosses. Its value to 

 the Laplanders "for bed and bedding" is, according to 

 Linnseus, very great, though his account of its properties 

 seems somewhat exaggerated. It ought to increase our 

 interest in it however, to know that the great Naturalist, in 

 his wanderings in pursuit of botanical rarities in these in- 

 hospitable climes, often made his couch and pillow of the 

 matted stems of this Foli/tricJmni. Dillenius tells of an oil 

 expressed from it, which the ladies of his day used for their 

 hair ; and the amiable Mr. White, in his History of Selbome, 

 speaks of it as having soft and pliant stems, " very proper 

 for the dusting of beds, curtains, carpets, etc." We believe 

 the purpose to which the latter refers to its being put, a very 



