200 WINTER SKETCHES. 



could cut a groove with his chisel and lathe. It 

 is a "rabbet" that the mosses designed long 

 before the carpenters were born. What skillful 

 fingers fashioned these tiny case-covers .■' Look 

 at them lying here and there among the leaf tufts 

 in all kinds of positions, as if the elf-urchins had 

 hurriedly thrown their caps away and scampered 

 off to have a dance on some other soft, green car- 

 pet in the woods. 



Many of the mosses are very sensitive to the 

 moisture, or dryness of the air. They love the 

 warm, wet weather. In favorable situations I dis- 

 cover, in my rambles, several other species that 

 have lifted up young fruit pedicels in these Win- 

 ter days, so wistful are they and quick to respond 

 to the sun. Here on the southern wooded slope 

 by the stone wall, are spread numerous mats of 

 the Polytrichum piliferum, a small brother to the 

 common "hair-cap." To the unassisted eye there 

 appears a fine floss on these mats, as if a thin 

 mist were lingering over them. The magnifier at 

 once shows that the midrib in each of the lance- 

 shaped crowded leaves is prolonged into a toothed 

 awn or beard, which is bright white and in striking 

 contrast to the dark-green foliage below. From 

 the midst of these nappy whorls have sprung 

 many half-grown stems, each wearing its hairy 

 cap, of the general Robinson Crusoe pattern, well 

 pulled down and fastened over the young, tender 



