34 MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



growing ; and as these rosette- like flowers in 

 the members of this particular group are often 

 brightly coloured, they are all the more con- 

 spicuous. I well remember spending an early 

 spring holiday, at the end of a specially wet 

 season, on the borders of the New Forest; the 

 constant rain had called forth the mosses in full 

 perfection, and in one particular stretch of heathy 

 land the ground in places was thickly carpeted with 

 tufts of some of the smaller kinds of Hair-moss, 

 which were covered with these tiny rosette-like 

 flowers, some of them still quite young and of a 

 pale greenish yellow, others more advanced and of 

 a warm orange colour, while others, that were still 

 more fully developed, showed up against the dark 

 green bristle-like leaves in various shades of red 

 and crimson. The sight was one not easily to 

 be forgotten, especially by any one who could 

 read the hidden meaning of these numberless 

 small round heads of colour on the sombre tufts 

 of moss. 



In figs. 3 and 5 of Plate III. these bud-like 

 growths have been formed in the second of the 

 two positions above referred to, namely, on the 

 side of the stem, nestling among the leaves. 

 Here the flower grows in the angle formed by a 

 leaf with the stem, or, in botanical language, in 

 the axil of a leaf ; hence it is said to be axillary. 

 Pig. 3 of the same plate is a drawing of the 

 Common Elat Eork-moss (Fissidew bry aides), 



