lOO THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



the liverworts show their direct derivation from the 

 Thallophytes, and more especially from the Green Algse. 



The Mosses, which are generally the only ones known 

 to the uninitiated — and which, in fact, form the principal 

 portion of the whole branch — belong to the second class, 

 or Leafy Mosses (Musci frondosi, called Musci in a narrow 

 sense, also Phyllobrya). Among them are most of those 

 pretty little plants which, united in dense groups, form 

 the bright glossy carpet of moss in our woods, or which, 

 in company with liverworts and lichens, cover the bark 

 of trees. As reservoirs, carefully storing up moisture, they 

 are of the greatest importance in the economy of nature. 

 Wherever man mercilessly cuts down and destroys forests, 

 there, as a consequence, disappear the leafy mosses which 

 covered the bark of the trees, or, protected by their 

 shade, clothed the ground, and filled the spaces between 

 the larger plants. Together with the leafy mosses dis- 

 appear the useful reservoirs which stored up rain and 

 dew for times of drought. Thus arises a disastrous dryness 

 of the ground, which prevents the growth of any rich 

 vegetation. In the greater part of Southern Europe — in 

 Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Spain — mosses have been destroyed 

 by the inconsiderate extirpation of forests, and the ground 

 has thereby been robbed of its most useful stores of 

 moisture ; once flourishing and rich tracts of land 

 have been changed into dry and barren wastes. Un- 

 fortunately in Germany, also, this rude barbarism is 

 beginning to prevail more and more. It is probable that 

 the small frondose mosses have played this exceedingly 

 important part in nature for a veiy long time, possibly 

 from the beginning of the primary period. But as their 



