6 HANDBOOK OF MOSSES. 



It is advisable to acquire the habit of noticing all the 

 features of the mosses with the unassisted eye. The con- 

 stant use of a lens is trying to the eyes, and I believe often 

 materially injures them. Most of the ordinary details may 

 be thus observed, such as the position of the leaves on the 

 stem, general characters, etc., noticing whether they are 

 erect, spreading, curved, or falcate, and so on, and their 

 direction when in the dry state. This latter character is 

 often a ready guide to nearly allied species. For instance, 

 two mosses common on wall tops, Bryum capillare and 

 B. ccespitirium (fig. i), both having many features in 

 common when moist, differ materially in appearance when 

 dry, the former having the leaves remarkably twisted, the 

 latter straight and imbricated. Many other like instances 

 might be cited. It is also well to acquire the habit of 

 using the lens to advantage, as it is often possible to gain 

 such a knowledge with this aid 'as will enable one to dis- 

 pense with the further aid of the microscope. 



A good text -book will, of course, be indispensable. There 

 are several to select from, published at various prices. For 

 instance, Stark's " British Mosses," having twenty coloured 

 plates, is offered for $s. ; but although very cheap, this is not 

 to my thinking a satisfactory book, the descriptions are too 

 vague to be useful ; still many of the more frequent mosses 

 may be made out by its aid. Berkeley's " Handbook of 

 British Mosses," with twenty-four coloured plates, costs 215-. 

 new, but may frequently be obtained second-hand for about 

 14$. This is a valuable work, and contains, in addition to 

 the descriptive text, much matter of interest and value. Its 

 greatest fault is, that the nomenclature is not in all cases 

 that most generally adopted, and that the author gives us 

 no synonyms. This, I think, is a serious fault, as it often 

 leaves a tyro in uncertainty as to the name adopted by 

 other authors. As a field book, and also of greatest value 

 in the study, no English work I am acquainted with 

 equals Hobkirk's "Synopsis of the British Mosses," pub- 

 lished at 7^. 6dl, for cheapness and for correctness ; its only 

 fault is the absence of plates, which cannot, of course, be 

 expected in so cheap a book. A new edition of this work 



