NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY* 147 



commends thefe berries, as a cooling, and at the fame time an 

 afbingent, medicine f . 



SECT. VI. 



Among the vegetables of this country, we miift further clafs ^ f ^°^ ees 

 what by many is looked upon only as a conflux of effcete ordure, 

 but is in reality, and efpecially when examined thro' a micro- 

 fcope, a regular vegetable, furnifhed with root, feeds, and leaves ; 

 I mean the feveral kinds of mofs, with which this country is over- 

 run, not only on the meadow-ground, where it is very detrimen- 

 tal, but alfo on the trees, from which, after a fhower it is eaflly 

 detached, tho' at other times adhering very clofely. This mofs, 

 upon a narrow infpection, is very different in colour, white, grey, 

 brown, yellow, black, and fpeckled; in figure, being either en- 

 tangled like wool, or with long filaments; or again with leaves 

 regularly difpofed, tho' of different figures, and it is fometimes 

 full of fmall round capfuke, as recepticles of the feed *. This 

 mean and defpifed vegetable, which feems to die under a long con- 

 tinuance of heat and drought, immediately recovers new life from 

 the rain, and is not made in vain by the wife Creator, it being 

 the fupport and fodder of many thoufands of rein-deers, on the 

 barren fummits of the mountains, thro' all the feverity of the 

 winter ; they remove the fnow with their feet to get at this de- 

 licious food; and they can neither thrive nor live to any time, if, 

 as has been often tried, they are removed into another country 



-f- Thus has the Sovereign of nature liberally dealt out particular vegetables and 

 trees to every country, according to the climate and foil thereof, and the neceffities 

 of its inhabitants. 



Nee vero terne ferre omnes omnia poflunt. 



Fluminibus falices, craffifque paludibus alni 



Nafcuntur. Steriles faxofis montibus orni, 



Littora myrteis laetifTima. Denique apertos 



Bacchus -amat colles. Aquilonem et frigora taxi 



Afpice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem, - 



Eoafque Arabum pictofque gelonos 



Divife arboribus patriae. Virgil. Georg. Lib. 11. Ver. 109. 



* J. Chr. Buxbaum in Commentar. Acad. Petropol. Tom. III. p. 271. Treats of 

 feveral kinds of mofs, and particularly gives the following account of a Norway- 

 mofs : " Genuina mufci fpecies eft mufcus Norwegicus, umbraculo ruberrimo infig- 

 nitus, mufci Petrop. quern Tournefortius incongrue Lichenibus accenfuit et Liche- 

 nem capillaceo folio, elatiorem pelvi ruberrima vocat, deceptus forte a fcuto, quod 

 hie in fummo fert pediculo, quum fciret multos ex Lichenibus effe fcutigeros. Sed 

 hoc fcutum in hoc immufco vires gerit calyptrae, fummo nempe capitulo pyri- 

 formi politum, et eft calyptra quafi expanfa. 



Part II. Q^q where 



