50 MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



of its form and colour. When seen under a 

 low-power lens in the microscope, emptied of 

 its spores, and with the beautiful fringe of teeth 

 all round the mouth expanded to the utmost, it 

 forms an object the beauty and fascination of 

 which it would be difficult, indeed, to over-esti- 

 mate. Eig. 9 of Plate IV.b is a drawing of the 

 capsule in this condition. At fig. 23 of Plate III. 

 we have the capsule of the Common Pottia (Pottia 

 tnmcatula), an inhabitant of roadside banks and 

 fallow fields ; its pretty little cup-shaped capsules 

 are produced in considerable quantities in the late 

 autumn and early spring, and the whole plant 

 in this stage makes a very interesting subject for 

 a microscopic slide. The tiny globe-like capsules 

 given in figs. 24 and 25 belong to the Pointed 

 Earth-moss (Phascum cuspidatum), which also 

 lives on shady banks and in fields, though a very 

 close inspection of the ground is necessary if 

 these diminutive round globes, enveloped in their 

 surrounding leaves, are not to pass unobserved. 

 When the capsule is ripe it turns a warm red 

 colour. 



Plate IV. fig. 1 is a drawing of a capsule of 

 another of our very small mosses, the Eallow-field 

 Cord-moss (Ftmaria fascicularis), which, as its 

 name implies, is found though not in such 

 abundance as the plants just referred to in 

 fallow-fields, especially on a clay soil ; it also is 

 so small that the ordinary observer would pass 



