USES. 87 



although the shoots are scarcely branched, they are never- 

 theless so entangled at the roots as not to be separable from 

 each other. This mossy cushion is very soft and elastic, 

 not growing hard by pressure, and if a similar portion of 

 it be made to serve for a coverlet, nothing can be more 

 warm and comfortable. " I have often," says Linnaeus, 

 " made use of it with admiration ; and if any writers had 

 published a description of the simple contrivance of the 

 Laplanders (which necessity has taught), I could almost 

 imagine that our counterpanes were but an imitation of it. 

 They fold this bed together, tying it up in a coil that may 

 be grasped by a man's arm, which, if necessary, they carry 

 with them to the place where they mean to sleep the night 

 following. If it becomes too dry and compressed, its former 

 elasticity is restored by moisture." P. commune is slightly 

 astringent, but is not now used here in medicine. In 

 Germany it is esteemed as a sudorific. At one time it was 

 famed for promoting the growth of hair, which it may pro- 

 bably do quite as well as some of our much-puffed nostrums. 

 Another useful tribe of mosses, the Sphagnums, may 

 also be mentioned. These are now largely used in the culti- 

 vation of orchids, their power of retaining moisture render- 

 ing them of especial value to the gardener for this purpose. 

 They have also been used for their package and transport 

 in a fresh state. For this purpose they are excellently 

 adapted, and Mr. W. Curtis obtained a reward from the 

 Society of Arts for his valuable discovery of the great ad- 

 vantages derived from the use of these mosses for packing 

 young trees for exportation. By Laplanders and Icelanders 

 they are used for lining their neat and curious cradles. In 

 cold countries they are also employed as a warm lining or 

 stuffing for the loose deer-skin boots which the reindeer 

 drivers wear. And lastly, to quote from Dr. Braithwaite's 

 valuable work on the Sphagnaceae : "As to the economic 

 uses of the Sphagnacetz, they are but small, except as a 

 source of easily procured fuel, and in this respect indeed 

 they are of immense importance, for no substitute could be 

 found in the thinly populated and barren districts of the 

 North, where trees become an insignificant object in the 



