8 MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



evidently belonging to some one kind or species, 

 yet differs slightly from the ordinary type of that 

 species, though not sufficiently to warrant a 

 distinctive name being given to it; such plants 

 are known as varieties, and these again go to 

 swell the great number of different forms which 

 the moss world includes. Many of the members 

 of this large fraternity are, of course, common 

 enough, as the banks and the woods, the walls 

 and the roofs, in any part of the country will 

 amply testify; others, again, are more fastidious, 

 and must have a habitation just to their liking 

 before they will settle down in life; while some 

 are distinctly rare, and only inhabit a com- 

 paratively few favoured localities. There is thus 

 plenty for a moss-hunter to do before he can be 

 said to have exhausted the field of his inquiry ; 

 and though, in the case of the beginner, the 

 plants to be gathered on any country ramble will 

 afford plenty of material for study for some time 

 to come, these will afterwards be supplemented 

 from time to time by the more out-of-the-way 

 kinds, which a holiday spent at the English Lakes, 

 or among the Scotch mountains, will enable him 

 to become acquainted with; and the search for 

 these more hidden treasures will add zest to 

 many a woodland stroll or mountain scramble. In 

 what I have to say I shall try, as far as possible, 

 to confine myself for examples to the commoner 

 kinds, as my readers will then be the better able 



