62 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
differs in structure and appearance from all other 
mosses. It is as great an anomaly among mosses 
as a Rhizogens, such as the Rafflesia or Balano- 
phora, is among flowering plants. An attentive 
examination of its peculiar structure will amply 
reward the microscopic student. Closely allied to 
it is another British moss, the Diphyscium foliosum, 
almost equally curious. It is not uncommon on 
banks and old wall-tops in alpine situations. It is 
a minute plant, with no stems, hair-like leaves, and 
very large oblique pale-yellow capsule nestling 
among the leaves. Indeed, so large is the fruit in 
proportion to the size of the plant, that it may be 
said to beall capsule together. By that peculiarity 
alone it may be known from all other mosses. 
The leaves are of two kinds; the lower being filled 
with chlorophyll and the upper being destitute of 
that substance, and therefore looser in texture. The 
individual plants are scattered over the turfy bank, 
each little tuft producing its own one capsule. 
In mosses we have the same gradation in the 
scale of development that we observe in the flower- 
ing-plants. As Phanerogamous plants advance in 
point of organization and form from grass to 
deciduous trees, from the humblest wayside weed 
tothe giant oak of centuries, so mosses rise in type 
and size from the minute Phascum or Earth-moss, 
which forms a mere film of green upon the ground, 
