CHAPTER V 



LEAFY MOSSES 



The tiny moss, whose silken verdure clothes 



The time-worn rock, and whose bright capsules rise, 



Like fairy urns, on stalks of golden sheen, 



Demand our admiration and our praise, 



As much as cedar, kissing the blue sky, 



Or Krubul's giant flower. God made them all, 



And what He deigns to make should ne'er be deemed 



Unworthy of our study and our love." 



All true mosses produce their 

 spores in a spore-case of one shape 

 or another which opens, with few 

 exceptions, by a lid. The spore- 

 case may be situated at the summit 

 of the stem of the moss-plant or on 

 one side of the stem. It may or 

 may not be supported upon a 

 pedicel (seta). 



Many species of moss have two 

 rows of teeth about the rim of the 

 spore-case, while some have one 

 row and some have none. The 



Spore -case 

 Plant with closed opening with- 

 spore-case. out a lid. 



Andrea rupeslris. An exception 

 to the rule that a moss spore-case 

 opens by a lid. 



Pottia trun- 

 cata; spore - 

 case opening 

 by a lid. 



30 



Plant with 

 spore-case im- 

 Spore-case open mersed by the 

 and spores falling. leaves. 



Archidium Ohiense. An excep- 

 tion to the rule that a spore-case 

 opens by a lid. 



