INTRODUCTION 3 



and thus directly adding to the interest of life. 

 As Wordsworth has so beautifully put it : 



Nature never did betray 



The heart that loved her. 'Tis her privilege, 

 Through all the years of this our life to lead 

 From joy to joy. 



It is therefore in the hope that I may be able 

 to bring to the notice of others a pursuit which 

 has been to me a constant source of refreshment 

 and delight, that these pages have been written. 



As the mosses are the more familiar plants, 

 I propose to confine myself, in the first instance, 

 to them, giving a few of the more generally 

 interesting facts respecting them, and passing to 

 a short sketch of their life-history, and various 

 modes of reproduction. I shall then deal, on the 

 same lines, with that small but fascinating tribe 

 that comes next below the mosses in the botanical 

 social scale, the liverworts, and shall conclude 

 with a few practical suggestions as to the 

 collection, examination, and preservation of speci- 

 mens. I wish, however, to say most emphatically 

 at the outset, that I do not pretend to do more 

 than to give a broad outline of the subject, my 

 object being, not to write a treatise of some scientific 

 value, but to raise in others the desire for fuller 

 information, and thus to induce them, not only 

 to consult more advanced works, but to go to 

 the fountain-head of knowledge, and to make 



