PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



OSSES are individvially so small and inconspicuous 

 that the effect which they have as a mass in creating 

 and enhancing the beauty of natural scenery is 

 often overlooked. Yet if one recalls the desolate 

 and uninviting appearance of a wood in which the 

 mosses have been destroyed by fire, or observes carefully the part 

 which mosses play in completing the attractions of mountain 

 scenery, he will feel like saying a hearty amen to Ruskin's 

 enthusiastic words in the closing paragraphs of his essay on 

 " Leaves Motionless." 



The freshness which a summer shower brings to the land- 

 scape is largely due to the unfolding of the mosses on tree and 

 fence and boulder from patches of lifeless brown into soft 

 cushions of living green. 



Many lovers of nature have observed the beauty of mosses 

 and have collected them for their beauty alone. Many more 

 would have collected and studied them had not the difficulties 

 been so numerous and hard to overcome. Until very recently 

 there has been no literature in the English language that was 

 suited to the needs of the beginner. Owing to the small size of 

 most mosses, the characters which separate species and even 

 genera are so largely microscopic that a compound microscope 

 has been considered an absolute necessity for their study. 



Many years of study of mosses in the field and in herbaria 

 have convinced the author that any person of average intelli- 

 gence can easily learn to recognize seventy-five to one hundred 

 common mosses with the aid of an ordinary hand-lens of ten to 

 fifteen diameters magnifying power. 



The purpose of this work is to give, by drawings and de- 

 scriptions, the information necessary to enable any one interested 

 to become acquainted with the more common mosses with the 

 least possible outlay of time, patience, and money. The drawings 

 were made without the aid of the compound microscope in order 

 that nothing might be represented that is not readily distin- 

 guished with the simple microscope. 



Finally it must be borne in mind by the student that the 

 present work is limited and incomplete in its treatment, and is 

 but a stepping stone to the larger and more complete works, and 

 to the broader and fuller study of bryology. 



A. J. GROUT, 



Boys' High School, 



August, 1900. Brooklyn, N. Y. 



