64 MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



when the time comes for the liberation of the 

 spores. Eig. 11 of Plate IV.b the capsule of the 

 tiny Serrated Earth-moss (Ephemerum serratum), 

 a plant already alluded to more than once is 

 another similar instance. 



One small family of mosses calls for special 

 notice, as the manner in which their capsules open 

 is very peculiar, and approaches, as we shall here- 

 after see, so closely to the method adopted by 

 the liverworts, that it would seem that we have 

 here a kind of link between the two tribes. The 

 mosses that I refer to are known by the family 

 name of Andrecea, after one Andrea, an apothecary 

 of Hanover. They make their abode in the crevices 

 of certain kinds of rock, and, being fond of high 

 and exposed situations, are mainly confined to 

 the peaks of our higher mountains. The striking 

 feature with regard to these little mountain mosses 

 is, that the capsule wall opens by means of four 

 cracks or slits, and it is through these slits, which 

 open in dry weather and close when moisture is 

 present, that the spores when ripe are allowed 

 to escape. Plate VI. fig. 3 is a drawing of a 

 ripe but closed capsule of one of these mosses, 

 the Black Ealcate Andresea (Andre&a Rothii), 

 which generally inhabits mountainous regions, 

 often growing on the face of a rock, exposed to 

 the full blaze of the sun, where to all appearances 

 it would seem to be without the means of bare 

 subsistence. The grooved markings on the capsule 



