MOSSES. 83 
stranger in a strange land, it often reminds the 
emigrant of the brown moorlands of his native 
country, where he used to gather the trailing 
wreaths of the fox-fetters to bind around his cap 
in the sunny days of youth. One remarkable 
species (Lycopodium squamatum), which grows in 
the arid deserts of central South America, among 
aloes and cactuses, is possessed of singular 
hygrometric properties. In the dry season, when 
every particle of moisture is extracted from the 
soil, it rolls itself up into a ball, like the young frond 
of a fern before it is unfolded, and unrolls during 
the wet season, recovering its green colour and 
spreading itself out flatly on the soil like a branch 
of arbor-vite, with its former vigour and freshness. 
There are several other species in Mexico and 
Brazil which also curl up and contract into a 
ball in the dry season, and losing their hold upon 
the soil, are blown across the plains by the violent 
equinoctial gales that prevail at the time, like 
the Anastatica or “Rose of Jericho” of Palestine. 
They are often brought to this country and pre- 
served by the curious under the name of the 
“Resurrection Plant,” who think them still alive 
because they expand when placed in water. A 
singular phenomenon has been observed in a 
species of Selaginella cultivated in Kew gardens, 
called specifically from this circumstance mradbzlis, 
