WINTER SKETCHES. 203 



my neighbor, who has also taken the liberty to 

 spread his mat here ? See how clearly and regu- 

 larly they lie over my stems and branches. 

 Altogether I appear, I must confess, somewhat 

 depressed. The leaves of the feather moss are 

 more loosely worn, and are cut into longer taper- 

 ing points, while many of its branchlets are erect. 

 I dare not lift my arms so high. But it is by our 

 fruit-cups you shall know us best. Observe that 

 my neighbor's are incurved and nodding and 

 crowned with a double row of teeth, while my 

 cups are upright and adorned only with a simple 

 coronet of spines, well set in below the edges 

 of the mouth. Besides, they are round, like 

 cylinders." 



But it would indeed require acute senses, even 

 of the bryologists, no doubt, to discover the law 

 which directs the mosses to grow in so many 

 different ways. What has caused the dry, slen- 

 der fruit-stems in this species to be twisted so reg- 

 ularly from left to right, or from right to left, like 

 candy sticks ? Why do the stems of other kinds 

 assume a flexuous, snakelike form with heads 

 re-curved, while those on a different mat grow as 

 straight and rigid as bristles 1 One also longs to 

 know the artists who fashioned these moss-fruit 

 urns into so many curious and elegant designs, 

 and ornamented them with various markings and 

 sculpturing ! Here is a vase, half emptied of its 



