DICRANUM, FUN ARIA, ETC. 37 



The part that we can daily observe with a simple pocket 

 lens is this : The little capsule rises from its mossy stem 

 wrapped in a delicate leaf> which breaks from its stalk, 

 and is carried upwards in the growth of the tender bud it 

 is to protect from the winter cold. This leaf forms the 

 calyptra before described, and varies in colour, form, and 

 substance : on some species of moss it is quite transparent, 

 of bright green or pale yellow; on some it is hairy and 

 thick. By-and-by the calyptra falls off, splits up the 

 side, or comes off whole, and then the capsule is seen, 

 wholly formed, but closed by its lid or operculum. This 

 also varies much in form and colour; sometimes, as in 

 the tiny Weissia on stone walls, it is bright apple-green, 

 tipped with scarlet or crimson, very beautiful to look upon 

 even thus ; but none could guess at the exceeding loveliness 

 concealed beneath this pretty lid, nor without a microscope 

 could we see further into its mysteries. 



If we take an unripe moss and divide it, we perceive the 

 spores clustering round the columella, and growing in warmth 

 and security within the closed capsule. But an appointed 

 time comes, and then the operculum opens, falls back, 

 and we see the peristome surrounded with a double or 

 single row of teeth, four, sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty- 

 four, always an even number and multiple of four, as I 

 have before observed, the outer row rich crimson or brown, 

 and the inner cilia pure white or pale yellow, forming an 

 exquisite network as they bend protectingly over the 

 mouth of the capsule, allowing the imprisoned spores both 

 light and air, yet saving them from cold and wet and tiny 

 insects, until they are perfected and ripe for dispersion. 

 When their work is accomplished the cilia open, the little 

 teeth unclose, and the spores fall to the ground, or are 

 borne upon the winds hither and thither, to vegetate 

 wheresoever it pleaseth God that they shall grow. All 

 this care hath He taken of the spores of a tiny moss ! 

 Yes; and these mosses occupy no unimportant position 

 in the economy of nature. They are, with lichens and 

 fungi, called servi, or servants, because they are the earliest 

 forms of vegetable life, and prepare the soil for higher 



