MOSSES AND LICHENS., 225 



mosses of the seas, and place them at the head (as they 

 are by right of priority) of this world of vegetation. 



The most attractive of our mosses grow in the shadiest, 

 thickest of our woods, where, at the foot of some huge 

 maple, ash or elm, in the rich damp vegetable mould, you 

 will find one of the handsomest and largest, the Hypnwm 

 splcndews; or, it may be, forming a miniature forest on 

 the decaying trunk of one of the prostrate giants of the 

 wood, where it spreads its feathery fan-shaped fronds, 

 branchlets which spring from a somewhat stiff and wiry 

 stem, each set apparently denoting the product of a 

 year's growth. 



The foliage of these fan-shaped fronds is soft, much 

 divided, and fringed with minute silky hairs. The older 

 plants are of a darker hue, with a purplish shade in the 

 centre. This adds much to the beauty of its appearance, 

 and serves to distinguish this fine moss from the other 

 species. 



The Hypnum splendens is, I think, of perennial 

 growth, as many specimens show the decayed fronds of 

 former years. I have counted as many as nine on the 

 same stem, besides the fresh green ones. 



The capsules containing the sporules or seed appear 

 on long slender' stems, not more than two at the base of 

 each of the fronds. This moss extends by roots as well 

 as by the seed. 



The wood moss {Hypnum trignrtram) is coarser 

 and more bushy, and though more striking in appear- 



