INTRODUCTION. 33 



for packing roots ; and the trunks of trees found undecayed in bogs and " mosses/' 

 which are large tracts almost composed of sphagnum^ show its power of preserving 

 from decay. 



At the present time^ there is a talk of using mosses in another way ; for 

 it is said that mosses are " coming into fashion/' by which is meant that they 

 are to be used on aU occasions for decorative purposes. Mosses are doubtless 

 very beautiful, and it is equally beyond a question that there are many things 

 which they would appropriately adorn. But- in England we are too apt to 

 think that because a thing is in itself pretty, we can make anything else 

 pretty by fastening it on to it. This by no means follows. The beauty of a 

 decoration depends upon the suitability of whatever is used for the purpose, to the 

 particular object decorated. We should not weave a carpet of a cloud pattern. 

 And a lady's cap which we saw in a window was in no wise adorned by having 

 sprays of artificial moss tacked all over it ; nor does it make a tea-service pretty 

 that a spray of moss is painted upon every cup, the moss being no moss in par- 

 ticular, but a conventional idea of moss in general. Nor is a bunch of moss 

 which has died of thirst suitable for trimming a bonnet. The chief beauty bonnets 

 at present possess is their being fresh and clean ; dry moss is particularly fusty 

 looking, and it is not improved by being dyed of a leather colour (! !), or a violent 

 blue-green (! ! !), the latter being the worst, as being a bad match, for moss is 

 iiever a blue-green. And the two-fold beauty of moss, in a single spray its 

 exquisite delicacy and structure ; in a mass its colour, its intricacy, and its fresh- 

 ness, are entirely lost in the before-mentioned uses, while the very fine divisions 

 and branchings make two or three sprays of moss together upon a bonnet, or any- 

 thing to be seen at a short distance off, look fuzzy, and like rough hair. 



But there is a legitimate use of mosses in decoration. Beautiful patterns may 

 be gained from the forms of the cells, and a designer would have a new world 

 opened to him by seeing them in a microscope, or by the plates in Bruch and 

 Schimper's " Bryologia Europasa," if he wishes to spare his eyes. The star-mosses 

 will make borders, Bryiim rosemn or Atrichum undulatum seen from above as 

 stars, patterns for carpets, the stars of their true green, the ground of the blue- 

 black which is the colour of the shadow in moss. The feather-mosses would 

 form rich scrolls, the various forms of capsiiles quaint corners and borders. Pew 

 mosses possess distinctive character enough for simple vignettes, but Mwium 



