BRITISH MOSSES. 351 



us through lovely bits of Cornish, Devon, and Hampshire scenery, 

 giving by the way pretty and fanciful descriptions of the various 

 wild flowers, ferns, and the like that haunt those scenes, but very 

 little of the mosses. Still, this chapter is a very pleasant one. 

 bection II. treats of the " Characteristics of Mosses." In this the 

 mosses are arranged under three heads : " star-mosses," of which 

 lortula muralis is given as typical; "feather-mosses," Hylocomium 

 splmdens serving as an example; and " candelabra,"— of this 

 sphagnum is the type. A short quotation will show the author's 

 mode of simplifying :— 



"'I n His Hands are all the corners of the earth'; a corner 

 numble enough is a bank in a moorland district. This is sometimes 

 covered with a star- moss, Polytrichumpiliferum, whose leaves, dark, 

 rigid, thickly beset the stem ; 'from the middle rises the fruit-stalk, 

 orange-coloured, deepening near the top to brown, and wearing a 

 conical cap covered with silky yellow hair, the golden hair and 

 orange stalks and green leaves shining beneath the blue sky. This 

 moss is an aloe in miniature, and on many of the stems, in the centre 

 ol the circlet of leaves, is a crimson cup, as perfectly like a cactus- 

 blossom. A sage-green moss, Hedwigia ciliata, is common on rocks, 

 has at the end of every branchlet its fruit, like a coral bead. The 

 Irmt of another is at once described by its specific name ' Apple 

 ■Moss,' Bartramia pumiformis. One family of star-mosses is appro- 

 priately designated the 'Swan-necked,' Mnium, so lovely is the 

 curve of its fruit-stalk; another might be called the 'Crane's- 

 billed,' Atrichum. But strangest of all, to a lowly moss, Mnium 

 undulatum has been given the form of that which is at once the 

 stateliest and the loveliest of all green things, the date-palm tree." 

 Section III. treats of " The Structure of Mosses," which may be 

 read with advantage by young students ; Section IV., " Mode of 

 collecting and examining Mosses," in which the author wisely 

 advises her readers to avoid as much as possible the use of lenses ; 

 Section V., " The Use of Mosses," gives a full account of this 

 portion of the subject, and ends with a short dissertation on the 

 uses of mosses in decoration, or as types for decoration. 



Following this is a " Synopsis of the Genera of British Mosses, 

 based on the System of Dr. W. P. Schimper." In this there are a 

 few inaccuracies of translation, but it will give the student a very 

 good idea of the classification adopted, vie,, that of Schimper's 

 ' Synopsis Muscorum E urop*eor um , ' second edition, 1876. 



This is followed by the " Explanation of the Plates," which 

 occupies the rest of the work ; the descriptions are often too vague 

 ^ help the student very much, but possibly by means of these and 

 t{ ie plates themselves he may get some help. Many of the latter 

 are excellent, and give very nicely the true characteristics of the 

 bosses depicted. The whole work is tastefully got up, the paper 

 good, and the printing of a good readable type ; and the author at 

 any rate deserves our thanks for the great labour she has bestowed 

 on a work intended for the help of the amateur in the study of 



Bryology. J* E. B. 



