196 



CLASS CRYPTOGAMIA. 



S\^ 





before the pedicel 

 j:iew up, served as 

 ci kind of calyx to 

 protect the embryo 

 fy Iruit; d, the oper- 

 ci/lmn, or hd 

 which, before the 

 Iheca is ripe, is co- 

 \ered by the ca- 

 lyptra ; e, the ca- 

 h/plra, or veil ; /, 

 thefringe, or teeth, 

 which, when the 

 thoca is ripe, and has thrown ofTits other parts, often appear around 

 'ts edge ; g, the barren or staminate flower of a moss. 



The mosses are generally perennial and evergreen, and capable 

 of growing in colder climates than most other vegetables. In Spitz- 

 bergen, the rocks which rise from the surrounding ice are thickly 

 clothed with moss. A botanist who travelled in Greenland, counted 

 more than twenty different species of moss Y>^ithout rising from a 

 rock where he was seated. 



All the parts of the mosses which have been described, are not seen 

 without the assistance of a good microscope. It is not to be expected 

 that young botanists will be fond of this department of the science, 

 aliliough those who become acquainted with it, discover much en- 

 Ihusiasra in its pursuit. The following interesting remarks on Cryp- 

 togamous plants are taken from an English writer. 



••Mosses and Fei'ns, by the inconsiderate mind, are deemed a 

 useless or insignificant part of the creation. That they are not, is 

 evident from this, that He who made them has formed nothing in 

 vuin, but on the contrary has pronounced all his creation to he good. 

 Many of their uses we knov/ ; that they have many more which wo 

 !:now not, is unquestionable, since there is probably no one thing in 

 tlie universe, of which we can dare to assert, that we know all its 

 uses. Thus much we are certain of, with respect to mosses, that as 

 they flourish most in winter, and at that time cover the ground with 

 a beautiful green carpet, in many places which would otherwise be 

 naked, and when little verdure is elsewhere to be seen ; so at the same 

 time, they shelter and preserve the seeds, roots, germs, and embryo 

 plants of many vegetables, which would otherwise perish. They fur- 

 nish materials for birds to build their nests with, they afford a warm 

 winter's retreat for some quadrupeds, such as bears, dormice, and 

 the like, and for numberless insects which are the food of birds and 

 fishes, and these again the food or delight of men. Many of them 

 grow on rocks and barren places, and by rotting away, afford the 

 first principles of vegetation to other plants, which never else could 

 have taken root there. Others grow in bogs and marshes, and by 

 continual increase and decay, fill up and convert them into fertile 

 pastures, or into peat-bogs, the source of inexhaustible fuel to the po- 

 lar regions. 



" They are applicable also to many domestic purposes. The Ly- 

 copodiums are some of them used in the dying of yarn, and in medi- 

 cine ; the Sphagnum (peat-moss) and P olytricJmm, fmmsh conve- 

 nient beds for the Laplanders, and the Hypnums are used in the ti- 



JTosse? capable of emliirinc? cold— jMicroscape necessary in examining mosses— Re- 

 marks of an English writer. 



