58 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
tinuous cushions, of a pale green, dirty white, or 
dark red colour. This is the principal moss in 
the marshy plains of Lapland, and within the 
whole of the Arctic Circle; and nothing can be 
more dreary and desolate than the scenery where 
this moss exclusively prevails. Melville Island, 
one of the most advanced western points navigated 
in the Polar Sea, though nearly as large as Scot- 
land, is principally covered with mosses, these 
plants forming more than a fourth part of its whole 
flora; while the black lifeless soil of New South 
Shetland, one of the most southern points in the 
Antarctic regions, is covered with faint specks of 
mosses struggling for existence. In the extreme 
north and the extreme south, they thus form the 
principal vegetation of large portions of the earth’s 
surface. 
Mosses are seldom associated with historical or 
personal incidents. There are two species, how- 
ever, which derive an additional interest from this 
connexion. Ithas been supposed that the hyssop 
which formed the lowest limit in the descending 
scale of Solomon’s botanical knowledge, and which 
was frequently employed in the temple service of 
the Jews for purposes of purification by water or 
blood, is identical with the little beardless moss 
(Gymnostomum truncatulum), which is abundant 
on banks, walls, and fallow fields in this country. 
