PREFACE. 



THIS little Essay has been written in the leisure 

 hours of one whose every-day life is spent amid the 

 busy hum and constant strain of a work-a-day life 

 in a large town, with the hope that he may call the 

 attention of others similarly situated to himself to 

 the beauties and wonders of some of God's fairest 

 works. The .study has been to him one of constant 

 enjoyment, has led him into many a charming spot, 

 has given him many a much-prized friendship, has 

 informed his mind, gladdened his heart, and gratified 

 his eyes ; and he would say to any one who is in 

 search of objects of real interest : Study the Mosses. 

 No objects are more readily found, for everywhere 

 in nature you will find the Mosses. And if you 

 desire a study which will present you with a constant 

 supply of interesting objects whether you take the 

 varieties of leaf form, or notice the elegant designs 

 of the little capsules, or study the exquisite beauty 

 of those minute fringes which adorn the capsules of 

 so many of our mosses, passing by degrees most 

 gradual from the simplest to the most complicated 

 structures, or study that most elementary of all 

 organisms, the vegetable cell, and observe how by 



