MOSSES AND FERNS. 89 



" Remedy for epilepsy or falling sickness, tried by M. Digby, 

 which cured the son of a minister at Frankfort in Germany, 

 in the year 1659 : — Take of polypode of oak, well dried and 

 reduced to a subtle powder — of the moss grown ou a human 

 skull of a person who has suffered a violent death — of the 

 parings of human nails of the hands and the feet, of each two 

 drachms; of the root of dried peony, half an ounce; and of 

 true oak mistletoe, half an ounce. This last must be gathered 

 in the decline of the moon," &c. 



But let us return to our mosses : the moss perishes in its 

 turn, after having allowed to escape from its little urns a 

 fecundating dust, which it confides to the winds, and which 

 will reproduce it at a distance. We easily recognise the 

 males and females in the mosses, sometimes, and in certain 

 species, united on the same stalk, and separated in other 

 species; the male bears little buds, the female little urns, 

 covered with an operculum or lid, which detaches itself when 

 the seeds are ripe, to allow them to fly away without 

 obstacle. 



Civilization is proscribing in the country a very charming 

 thing : the thatched roofs of cottages covered with moss, and 

 surmounted by the iris, with its sharp leaves and rich violet- 

 coloured flowers. The tiles and slates that flatter the pride 

 of the owners are far from flattering our eyes to an equal 

 degree. 



To the dead mosses succeed ferns. Ferns have large feathery 

 leaves, which have altogether the appearance of the wings of 

 birds. The fructification of the ferns is very singular : under 

 the leaves, or rather on the under side of the leaves, you 

 may see, regularly ranged, several lines of brown-coloured 

 rings ; these rings are formed by the seeds, which are as if 

 glued upon the inferior epidermis of the leaf. In some 

 species, these seeds are enclosed in a membrane which opens. 



The learned have taken possession of the ferns ; they call 

 the seeds spores; — pray, don't ask me why. The little 

 packets of seeds have received the name of spores; others call 

 them sporanges; the ring which surrounds them, and which 

 very properly has been called simply a ring, in the same 

 manner as they might have called the seeds seeds, and the 

 packets of seeds packets of seeds — the ring was first called 



