MOSSES. "7 
equivalent to buds, which frequently throw out 
rootlets before leaving their receptacles, and, 
striking root on the spots where they happen 
to fall, in time become perfect fronds. There is 
no more pleasing and profitable study to the 
young botanist than the examination of the highly 
curious structure and complex system of fructifica- 
tion peculiar to this plant. It is interesting also 
on account of its associations. Under the name 
of Hepatica officinarum, it was employed by the 
ancient herbalists, from its resemblance to the 
reticulated structure of the liver, as a cure for all 
diseases affecting that organ. It is still used as a 
popular remedy for jaundice and other maladies 
in some parts of England; but its virtues are, in 
all likelihood, entirely imaginary. Hoffmann and 
Willemet, in their elaborate treatise upon the uses 
of lichens, state regarding it, ‘Cette plante est 
amere, aromatique, abstersive, vulneéraire, sudori- 
fique, apéritive. On prescrit I'Hépatique en 
apozéme, a la dose d'une poignée pour l’homme, 
et de deux ou trois pour les animaux.’ The 
bruised fronds of some species are singularly 
fragrant, resembling bergamot. 
The second or foliaceous group of scale-mosses, 
in which the leaves and stem are distinct, is 
called Yungermannie, and contains by far the 
largest number of species, and the richest variety 
