INTRODUCTION. 



25 



We must, however, premise that nobody need think of becoming one who at 

 all minds taking long and dirty walks, or is afraid of wet feet, or dreads doing that 

 dreadful deed which is called by nurses " making yourself a figure." But 

 supposing that you do not fear any of these things, you should choose for your 

 moss-trooping a day after rain ; dress so as to leave the arms free, avoiding long 

 cloaks, shawls, and veils, everything, in short, likely to catch in the bushes, under 

 which you will have to grope, and wear very thick boots or goloshes. Half the 

 pleasure of a search is destroyed by the fear of an accident to one's dress, or of 

 not being shod well enough to venture into the mire, for perhaps under those 

 bushes you may find a prize, and you will never be satisfied that there was not one 

 on the other side of the mud. You will need a strong knife with a broad blade, 

 and two baskets, a large one, and a smaller to go into it ; nothing more for the 

 walk, for the mosses will keep fresh, and detailed examinations are better carried 

 on in the house. For a long time the rule to be observed in collecting is simply 

 to carry home all mosses that you find ; it is a habit which will of itself be laid 

 aside as you become familiar with them. Take large tufts, pulling them fear- 

 lessly, and removing with your knife such mosses as grow on trees, stones and 

 earth ; put the smaller kinds by themselves in the little basket, remembering the 

 celebrated philosopher who made a great hole in the door for the cat and a little 

 hole for the kitten. Do not miss those in fruit ; but if you find a new moss which 

 is barren, gather it nevertheless. 



It will be well to guard a beginner against confounding any other tribe of 

 cryptogamic plants with mosses. The leather-like tufts, and the grey, orange, and 

 sea-green scaly or leafy growth upon trees and stones, are lichens, whose fruit is in 

 little round shields or warts. Plants having branches like flat string's of trans- 

 parent green or whitish scales, which are often seen growing among mosses, are 

 jungermannia or liverworts. These in fruit seem as if they were stuck fidl of phis 

 having black heads and transparent wires. Club-mosses are in reality more 

 nearly allied to ferns than to mosses. They are rambling plants, much like cats'- 

 tails fastened together by their ends, and grow in heathy places ; their seeds 

 being- in brown cases collected in a club-shaped mass. A little practice will soon 

 teach what are the true mosses, and when a moss is in fruit it will be known at 

 once. 



Having gone as far as you feel inclined, take your treasures home. They will 



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