88 HANDBOOK OF MOSSES. 



scenery, or cease to grow at all ; yet Nature, by the very 

 means which produce these widely extended solitudes, 

 supplies one of the first requirements of those who occupy 

 them, and everywhere is peat annually cut, dried, and 

 stored." 



With regard to the functions of these plants in the formation 

 of peat, I cannot do better than quote Professor Schimper's 

 words. He says : " Unless there were peat-mosses, many a 

 bare mountain ridge, many a high valley of the temperate 

 zone, and large tracts of the northern plains, would present 

 a uniform watery flat, instead of a covering of flowering 

 plants or shady woods. For just as the Sphagna suck up 

 the atmospheric moisture and convey it to the earth, do 

 they also contribute to it by pumping up to the surface of 

 the tufts formed by them, the standing water which was their 

 cradle, diminish it by promoting evaporation, and finally 

 also by their own detritus, and by that of the numerous 

 other bog-plants to which they serve as support, remove it 

 entirely, and thus bring about their own destruction. 

 Then, as soon as the plant-detritus formed in this manner 

 has elevated itself above the surface water, it is familiar 

 to us by the name of peat, becomes material for fuel and 

 all Sphagnum vegetation ceases." 



But not only do mosses fill up and consolidate bogs, 

 they are also as it were the pioneers of vegetation, and by 

 their growth and decay year after year at length form a 

 mass of vegetable mould sufficient for the nourishment ot 

 vegetables of higher organization ; these in their turn give 

 way to still higher forms, until at length we have, instead of 

 a bare mountain side, a rich vegetation which may not 

 serve merely to gratify our eye or inform our mind, but 

 may also yield that which shall sustain us by its nutritive 

 properties, or by its medical properties alleviate or mitigate 

 our suffering. 



