III. 



MOSS HABITATS. 



THE habitats or natural homes of mosses are very varied. 

 In fact, mosses may be found everywhere in country dis- 

 tricts, so that banks, trees, woods, fields, heath lands, walls, 

 marshes, bogs, and other watery places, all have their several 

 mossy inhabitants. Though in many instances mosses show 

 some degree of preference for particular habitats, no positive 

 line of demarcation can be drawn with regard to the habitats 

 of some species. Ceratodon, for example, seems to be at 

 home in every locality, whilst others, such as the Sphagnums 

 and many of the Orthotrichums, etc., are truly selective with 

 regard to their haunts. Hence I can only indicate the 

 most likely mosses to be found in particular habitats. In 

 many instances the same plants may be found flourishing 

 in equal abundance in a variety of habitats. I have already 

 mentioned Ceratodon purpureus as a moss to be found 

 everywhere. It is abundant on heathy waysides, and on old 

 walls, thatched roofs, and even on trees it is no less plentiful, 



Banks, whether sandy, marly, or calcareous, are the 

 favourite haunts of many mosses, and if we examine a damp 

 sandy bank between February and April we shall be almost 

 sure to find the dark-green, silky masses of Dicranella 

 heteromalla, easily known by its terminal fruit- stalk, which 

 is pale in colour and is abruptly bent back just below the 

 capsule. The leaves will be found to be very narrow and 

 all curved in one direction, and the capsule surmounted by 

 a lid having a longish beak ; the peristome or fringe con- 

 sists of sixteen teeth, each of which is split half way down. 



In like places we shall also find Weissia controversy 

 which has straighter leaves, with the margins rolled over 

 towards the upper surface, erect oval capsules, lid with a 

 long, straight beak, and a fringe of sixteen rudimentary 



