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VORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNlON. 



and their study must be undertaken during life; their elegance 

 of form and colour attract us, but it is by dissection and the 

 study of their development that we gain an insight into their 

 wonderful structure, and the adaptation of parts to the work 

 they have to perform ; in a word the mechanism by which the 

 mysteries of life are carried on, and doing so we cease to travel 

 in the narrow groove of mere collectors, and become naturalists 



indeed. 



But who is sufficient for all these things ? Just so, and for 

 that reason I advise everyone who means work to confine 

 himself to one division or group, and that I may not be met by 



F 



the old adage ne sutor ultra crepidam, I shall confine the rest 

 of my remarks to that portion of the cryptogamia called Mosses. 

 The Bryophyta or Mosses are cellular plants, often very 

 insignificant, but occupying a very important place in the 

 economy of nature, and the number of them probably docs not 

 fall short of ten thousand species, of which, about eight hundred 

 are natives of our own country. They fall naturally into three 



divisions, 



Bryinx— True or frondose mosses. 



Sphagninee — Peat mosses. 

 Hepaticoe — Liver mosses. 



the first two are usuahy combined, but present differences which 

 are well defined and recognisable at a glance, and the frondose 

 mosses being by far the most numerous, I shall confine my 

 remarks to them, and then indicate the points in which the 

 others differ from them. 



We will commence with the spore or seed. These arc very 

 numerous and extremely minute, resembling brown, yellow, or 



But. Tnuis. Y.N.U., 1891 (|ml). 181)(5)- 





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