" What tree or what herb, be it ever so fair, 



Can in exquisite grace with the mosses compare? 



The feathery Hypnuins rich tapestries spread, 



And many-hued mats, soft as down to the tread. 



Wide o'er cold bogs spreads the pallid peat moss; 



Fontinalis' green tresses the mountain-streams toss; 



The emerald Bryum on moist shady banks 



Unfolds its rosettes, and here, too, in close ranks, 



The troops of Dicranum are tilting their lances, 



And the Liliput fruit of Bartramia dances 



In each passing breeze; all these tiny green spheres 



Are caskets of moss-seed, mere dust it appears, 



But all vital with life, but as yet it is hid 



By a cunningly fitted, and bossed little lid; 



While above this a veil, too transparent to hide, 



Rests lightly, as over the head of a bride."- — A. H. Curtiss. 

 "The feathery Hypnums" cover the tops of the rocks in the 

 hemlock grove in Bronx Park, and grow on many an old stump 

 and log in the woods, where we love to wander when spring- 

 flowers tempt us out on long walks. Many of them are like 

 worsted or chenille, their leaves are so small and lie so close 

 along the stem. Others are like miniature evergreens and re- 

 semble most the tall spires of the balsams and spruces as they 

 tower above the forests of the Catskills and Adirondack moun- 

 tains. One is known as Thutdium, the Little Cedar, and the 

 name Hypnum is derived from the same root word as Hypnotism, 

 meaning sleep. 



The pallid peat-moss is not common in this region, because 

 we have very few "cold bogs." But three species are found 

 occasionally in wet ditches and swamps where the alders grow, 

 Sphagnum acutifolium, the sharp-leaved peat-moss, Sphagnum 

 squarrosum, the spreading-leaved peat-moss, and Sphagnum cym- 

 bifolium, the boat-leaved peat-moss. Specimens for the class- 

 room may be had from the florists, who use them for packing, 

 or even from the dealers in hay and feed, who sell what they 

 call " peet moss," a sign familiar at one of the stations to all 

 who travel on the line of the Harlem Railroad. It is used for 

 bedding in stables on account of its ability to absorb many 

 time its weight in water, a property due to the fact that its cells 

 are full of holes or pores like a sponge, and the water replaces 

 the air they contain very rapidly. 



We have not yet come to using peat for fuel, as the 

 peasants do in Ireland and other parts of Europe, but if settlers 

 in virgin forests continue to burn standing forests, as they clear 

 the ground, and the wanton destruction of our woods goes on 

 unchecked, we shall soon be using it or some other substitute, 



