MOSSES 65 



wall show where the slits will presently appear, 

 so soon as the time arrives for the spores within 

 to be discharged. Eig. 4 of the same plate repre- 

 sents a dry capsule of another moss belonging to 

 this family, the Alpine Andresea (Andre&a alpina), 

 which flourishes in still higher altitudes, and here 

 the capsule wall has split open in the manner de- 

 scribed, and the spores have fallen out. At fig. 5 

 we have a somewhat damaged capsule (drawn in 

 the moist state) in which three of the four pieces 

 into which the capsule has divided are still held 

 together at their upper ends, the fourth having 

 broken away. Eigs. 13 and 12 of Plate IV .b 

 show the closed and open capsules of another 

 member of this family. There are, in all, only 

 some four or five British species, and, owing to 

 their preference for high localities, they are not 

 at all common in these islands ; but in other parts 

 of Europe, and especially in Scandinavia, which 

 seems to be their favourite haunt, they are much 

 more abundant. Though in form and colouring 

 they are not perhaps so attractive as many of their 

 brethren of the moss world, yet to the nature 

 student a special interest attaches to them from 

 the facts above detailed, and others of a like 

 nature to which I shall have occasion to refer 

 more fully hereafter. 



Having started with a spore we have now re- 

 turned to the spore again, and thus the narrative 

 which I set out to tell would seem to be com- 



5 



