iqS winter sketches. 



while those on the upper half are abruptly larger, 

 scattered and spreading. The end of the sprig, 

 protected by a whorl of sheathing leaves from 

 which, next Summer, would have grown the pedi- 

 cel with its curious fruiting cup, is succulent and 

 packed with chlorophyll. 



So these modest, unpretentious mosses are 

 humbly fulfilling their mission on the earth. 

 They are continually making new leaves, while 

 the old leaves are converted into rich mold, from 

 which in time will spring up an army of higher 

 plants, with their flourish of trumpets and their 

 flying colors. Here at the foot of a tree is a large 

 clump of moss with finer leaves and the thickly 

 matted stems more delicately spun. If a yard or 

 two of- yellowish green plush with long hirsute 

 pile had been carelessly spread out and conformed 

 to the general unevenness of the ground, it could 

 hardly have been distinguished, at a distance, 

 from this beautiful piece of Nature's weaving. 

 The numerous awl-shaped, strongly-curved leaves 

 are arranged only on one side of the stem, as if 

 the heavy winds blowing constantly on them from 

 one direction had bent them, like grass-blades in 

 the meadows. From out this soft, mossy bed has 

 grown a mimic forest of brownish-yellow stems or 

 pedicels on which are attached tiny fruit-cups — 

 cornucopiae, arched or bent over like bows. A 

 month or two ago each one of these fruit-cases 



