NATURAL HISTORY of NC )RWAT, i 47 



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

 aftringent, medicine f . 



SECT. VI. 



Among the vegetables of this country, we muft further clafs Mofs on trees 



11 *11i n r rr aiK * ^ oneSl 



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

 but is in reality, and especially 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 eafily 

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

 upon a narrow infpedion, . 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 capfulae, 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 



t 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 terra ferre omnes omnia pofTunt. 



Fluminibus falices, craffifque paludibus alni 



Nafcuntur. Steriles faxofis montibus orni, 



Littora myrteis lastiffinia. Penique apertos 



Bacchus amat colles. Aquilonem et frigora taxi 



Afpice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem, 



Eoafque Arabum pidtofque gelonos 



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



* J. Chr. Buxbaum in Commentar. Acad. Petropol. Tom. Ill 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 infie- 

 mtus, inula Petrop. quern Tourneiortius incongrue Lichenibus accenfuit et Liche- 

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

 me in fammo fert pediculo, quum fciret multos ex Lichenibus tff& fcutigeros Sed 

 hoc fcutam in hoc : immuico vires gerit calyptne, fammo nempe capitulo pyri- 

 iorrm pdiitum, et eft calyptra quafi expanfa. r :- • 



Part II. Q^q where 



