CHAPTER IV 



MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



There is a tendency nowadays to overlook 

 little things. This is to be deplored, parti- 

 cularly in Nature Study, for many of the small, 

 and somewhat insignificant, forms of life can 

 offer much that is of interest and value. It is 

 perhaps more true of the enormous number of 

 plants which have been grouped together under 

 the term " moss " than of anything else in the 

 botanical world. People admire the pretty 

 green foliage of these lowly plants, but how 

 very few, even of those who pride themselves 

 on some knowledge of living things, have the 

 remotest idea of the habits of life and method 

 of increase of the commonest kinds of mosses. 

 Although the plants themselves are so small, 

 the study of them is really rather a formidable 

 matter, largely on account of the enormous 

 number of species, running into many hundreds 

 in Britain alone, which have been described. 

 It goes without saying that within the limits 



•33 



