140 OF THE MOSSES AND THEIR ALLIES. 



refts in a wall, the hard surface of a rock, and finally to 

 spots (such as the resort of the charcoal-burner) where 

 the soil, though sheltered by trees, has been withered and 

 scorched by the action of fire. 



Mosses, observes Lindley, ' are found in all parts of the 

 world where the atmosphere is humid, but they are far 

 more common in temperate climes than in the tropics. 

 They are among the first vegetables that clothe the soil 

 with verdure in newly formed countries, and they are the 

 last that disappear when the atmosphere ceases to be 

 capable of nourishing vegetation. The first green crust 

 upon the cinders of Ascension consisted of minute Mosses I 

 they form more than a quarter of the whole Flora of 

 Melville Island ; and the black and lifeless soil of New 

 South Shetland is covered with specks of Moss struggling 

 for existence.' 



Their favourite localities, however, are those which are 

 rich in decaying vegetable matter, and but little exposed 

 to the sun's heat ; so that it is to the wood and forest, the 

 deep ravine and the narrow valley, that the collector must 

 look for his principal gatherings. The shady side of bold 

 ridges must be carefully searched ; also damp hedgerows 

 and wet rocky places, especially with a northern aspect, 

 for in these many of the delicate Jungermannise love to 

 grow. A few, comparatively rare, forms (the Splachna) 

 choose the dung of animals as their habitat, principally in 

 Alpine and Subalpine districts. ' One of these, Splachnum 

 angustatum, which is commonly met with upon dung, we 

 once saw growing vigorously upon the foot of an old 

 stocking near the summit of Ingleborough, Yorkshire. The 

 same species was found by a friend of ours covering the 

 half- decayed hat of a traveller who had perished on the 

 mountain of St. Bernard in Switzerland; and the same, if 

 we mistake not, was discovered by Captain Parry in 

 Melville Island, vegetating in the bleached skull of a musk- 

 ox.' * The Sphagna, as stated above, are truly aquatic, 



* Muscoloirhi "Britanniea. 



