MOSSES. 57 
comfortable. The common hair-moss! (Polytri- 
chum commune), which is the strongest and wiriest 
of the British mosses, often covers large tracts of 
moorland, in moist places, and frequently attains 
a height of between two and three feet. In Lap- 
land it forms almost the only verdure of the plains, 
and is occasionally used by the inhabitants when 
on long journeys for a bed ; a large portion of the 
mossy turf, cut from a neighbouring spot, being 
employed asacovering. The fountain apple-moss 
(Bartramia fontana) also grows in great profusion 
wherever it occurs. It completely fills up the 
sources of springs, for many yards around, with a 
bright green deceptive verdure, through which the 
unwary foot sinks into the coldest water and the 
blackest mud. The course of Alpine streamlets, 
near their commencement, may be traced for a 
considerable distance by the beds of this moss, 
through which the waters languidly flow. But of 
all the members of this family the Sphagua' or 
bog-mosses are the most social. They are every- 
where most abundant on heaths and mossy soils, 
where they spread in such immense masses that 
they give a singularly light appearance to the 
whole moorland landscape ; and by the accumula- 
tion of their remains fill up the beds of ancient 
lakes, bogs, and marshes, with dense, spongy, con- 
1See Frontispiece, 
