INTRODUCTION. 



To render the Mosses of England 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 depart- 

 ment of our botany upon a firmer basis ; and, by render- 

 ing more easy the investigation of onexrf the most beau- 

 tiful 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 in- 

 dulge in this hope, we are sensible that it can only be 

 entertained in a very imperfect degree. Much may not- 

 withstanding still be done, though all cannot be accom- 

 plished ; and to us the very study requisite for the doing 

 of it is in itself a pleasure that repays the toil. 



To turn more immediately to the object before us, 

 the Muscologia is a subject comparatively new, scarcely 

 thirty years having elapsed since the publication of Hed- 

 wig's Theory ; a work which first diffused over the sci- 

 ence that light by whose aid all future progress has 

 been made in its advancement. The successive labours 

 of this eminent naturalist contributed to build a system 



b 



