INTRODUCTION 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



To render the Mosses of the British Islands generally known, 

 to give to other Naturalists an opportunity of profiting by those 

 researches, upon which we have ourselves bestowed much time 

 and patience ; to fix, if possible, this department of our Botany 

 upon a firmer basis ; and, by facilitating the investigation of one 

 of the most beautiful parts of the Creation, to place in a clearer 

 light the wonders of the Divine hand ; such are the motives that 

 we set before us in the undertaking of this work, and such the 

 objects which we flatter ourselves we shall be found, in some 

 measure, to have attained. At the same time, however, that we 

 trust we may be allowed to indulge this hope, we are sensible 

 that it can only be entertained to a very limited degree. 

 Much may, notwithstanding, still be done, though all cannot be 

 accomplished ; and, to us, the very study requisite for effecting 

 it, proves, in itself, a pleasure that repays the toil. 



To revert more immediately to the object before us, the 

 Muscologia is a subject comparatively new, scarcely 40 years 

 having elapsed since the publication of Hedwig's Theory, a 

 work which first diffused over the science that light by whose aid 

 all subsequent progress in its advancement has been made. The 

 successive labours of this eminent Naturalist contributed to erect 

 a system upon firm and philosophic grounds. He has been ably 

 seconded by more recent authors, especially by Swartz and Mohr, 



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