It requires much time and study to know the mosses well 

 and be able to distinguish the different species and varieties, 

 but it is easy to learn the names and to be able to recognize 

 about fifty species which are common within the present city 

 limits, without the aid of the microscope or even without a 

 hand lens, though this assistance will add greatly to the surety 

 and exactness of the recognition. 



In trying to make the acquaintance of the mosses, as in any 

 other study, care and attention to detail is necessary. It is 

 best to carry either a note-book or some papers along for 

 wrapping the specimens as they are found, and at the time 

 they are gathered note the habit of growth, whether on trees, 

 rocks, or on the ground, whether in wet or dry places, and to 

 notice their color; also if they are erect, or creeping, climbing 

 up trees, or hanging down from rocks, or even floating in the 

 water. Note also whether they are in fruit or sterile, and keep 

 a record with each specimen of the place where it grew and the 

 time when it was gathered. It is well also to record whether 

 the season be early or late, wet or dry, as the weather has 

 much to do with the development of these plants. 



Mosses have stems and leaves, and they also have organs of 

 reproduction, which correspond to the anthers and pistils of 

 higher plants, known as the antheridia and archegonia. The 

 antheridia contain the motile antherozoids, the fertilizing proto- 

 plasmic bodies which make their way down the neck of the 

 archegonium to the egg-cell, which lies in the same position 

 relatively, that the ovules occupy in the ovary of flowering 

 plants. As soon as this takes place, and it usually happens in 

 summer or fall, during a wet, rainy season, growth begins in 

 the egg-cells, they divide and expand, the walls increase in cir- 

 cumference, and finally are torn away at the base being carried 

 upward on the lengthening pedicel, to become the cap or pro- 

 tecting calyptra, which remains on while the capsule or spore- 

 case is maturing its spores. It frequently remains on all winter 

 and falls off in the spring-time when the spores are ripe. As 

 soon as they are ripe, the lid also falls away, and the fringe of 

 teeth surrounding the mouth spread out, forming one of the 

 loveliest objects under the microscope, or even to be readily 

 seen with a hand lens. The only comparison that is adequate 

 is the fringe of tentacles around the mouth of a sea-anemone; 

 lovely, bright, spreading, stars of red, orange and yellow, 

 numbering always some multiple of four. 



