Boston Journal of Natural History. 33 



indefatigable searcher after the minuter wonders of the floral 

 kingdom. 



Mosses are ubiquitous in their character of growth, an a 

 few have been found almost all over the globe. Among the 

 muscological treasures, collected in British North America, 

 during the second land expedition under Sir John Franidin, 

 R. N., may thus be seen, many, which also grow in southern 

 and eastern parts of the United States. No mountain so 

 barren, which does not nurture some species in its bosom — 

 no desert so arid that does not acknowledge the presence of 

 others. In wet or humid places, some genera are only to be 

 found ; and on dry rocks, exposed to the glare of unmitigated 

 sunshine, others delight themselves, expanding their leaves, 

 on the presence of the sHghtest moisture, and swelling their 

 seed-vessels in vigorous beauty. In rapid running streams, 

 several are found to flourish ; and others, again, thrive best 

 on rocks exposed to the perpetual dash of waterfalls. The 

 Funaria hygrometrica, which sprmgs up in our garden walks 

 in early spring, has been found in all parts of the world, 

 while, again, there are species which affect particular soils 

 only, and others of most singular rarity. 



But to turn, from these general remarks, to Prof Russell's 

 paper, from which we quote as follows : — 



" Would we seek for elegance amid the minuter wonders of the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom — for delicacy of structure ; for instances of exquisite design, 

 or for subjects of patient and instructive study ; to no department of scien- 

 tific research may we turn, with greater hope of success, than to the 

 Mosses. Their tiny roots ; their curious leaves, rigid and like bristles in 

 some, or broad or simple in others, or of the most complicated tissue of 

 network in others, — in all, a great variety: and so fitly adapted to the cir- 

 cumstances of their places of growth ; their anomalous floral organs, but 

 dimly shadowing forth the sexual differences in phasnogamous plants ; the 

 grace of their fruitstalks, {selce) ; the proportion of their capsules ; the 

 peristome of a simplex or else of a complex character ; the columella 

 invested with spores (seeds) and operculum, to protect them from injury 

 when immature ; the veil or calyptra surmounting the whole, and cast 

 aside, when no longer needed, by a variety of ingenious devices; their 

 mode of propagation ; utility to man ; and indirect agency in the economy 

 of the material world : superadded, the names of illustrious men who have 

 made them their study, — these, and other circumstances beside, render an 

 accurate knowledge of them an object of value and of constant interest. 



" The species mentioned in this paper were determined from specimens, 

 VOL. XII. — NO. I. 5 



