52 HANDBOOK OF MOSSES. 



brown, beautifully barred ; inner fringe membranous, paler ; 

 spores small, green. The peristome of this common rnoss 

 is a most beautiful object for the microscopist. 



Bryum ccespiticium is also very frequent, growing in close 

 compact tufts, of a yellowish or green colour. Usually very 

 much like the last (fig. i) at first sight; but in this the 

 leaves are erect (not twisted) when dry, the lid yellow, not 

 red as in capillare, and the spores minute and yellow. 



Bryum argenteum may be readily known by its beautiful 

 silvery foliage. The leaves are closely imbricated (over- 

 lapping) ; capsule pendulous, and passing abruptly into the 

 fruit-stalk. Green forms, however, occur ; but may at once 

 be known by the closely imbricated leaves, with large cells. 



Didymodon rubeHns, so far as my own observations serve, 

 is somewhat local ; is usually fond of old shady walls ; and 

 fruits from November to February. Grows in dull-green 

 tufts, which are reddish below; the leaves lance-shaped, 

 somewhat clasping the stem at their base ; margins recurved ; 

 leaf-cells minute in upper part, towards the base elongated 

 and transparent. The leaves, too, are spreading when 

 moist, but twisted when dry ; the capsule is cylindrical ; 

 fringe of sixteen simple teeth ; lid slightly curved and 

 beaked. 



A true bryologist should never be afraid of damp and 

 dirty boots ; if he be, I am afraid he will scarcely care to 

 follow me to the habitats I have next to mention, that is, 

 the marshes and bogs, and will thereby lose some of the 

 rarest and most beautiful of the mosses. The odours of a 

 marsh are not always of so grateful a nature as one would 

 desire for a bouquet ; but the gems which cluster round its 

 margin, or more boldly brave its deeper depths, are worthy 

 to be placed among the fairest of the floral world, and speak 

 as loudly of the marvellous skill of the Great Designer, as 

 the most beautiful and complicate of God's creatures. He 

 who doubts this should examine with the microscope the 

 wonderful structure of a Sphagnum leaf; and if the delicate 

 network that he will then have revealed fail to charm, it will 

 be because his power of appreciating beautiful objects is 

 limited. Among other denizens of these watery situations 



