28 



BRITISH MOSSES. 



cells, whether the leaves are nerved or their edges are serrated, how far the 

 serratures extend, the point of the leaf, &c. Next observe how the leaves are set, 

 examine the leaves forming the perichsetum, and observe whether the seta is 

 twisted, and if there be any swelling near the base of the capsule ; look if the 

 capsule is furrowed, take off the operculum and notice the fringe, if single or 

 double, the form of the teeth, the structure of the inner peristome, in short, every 

 distinctive particular possible, and if you like to do so note them all down. Do 

 this without troubling- your head at all about the names of the mosses, but merely 

 familiarize yourself for the present with the differences between each, for you will 

 find one of your greatest stumbling-blocks to be a fancy that so many mosses are 

 alike which in reality are essentially different ; and great will be your surprise at 

 the length of time it takes you to overcome this. 



So, learning all that the lower power reveals, you will next make sections of 

 the moss for study under the higher, for which you will require a curved knife, 

 a pair of microscopic scissors with slanting blades, and a few needles fixed in corks. 

 Remove the upper glass, but keep the moss flat ; detach as many leaves as you like 

 with the point of the knife and lay them on a slide, covering them at once with thin 

 glass, lest they curl up ; take one cut through the stem just below the junction of 

 a leaf and another above it, and picking this section up with your needle, turn it 

 about under the glass every way to see the manner in which the leaf meets the 

 stem ; to make a section of the leaf, hold it fast on the slide with a cork and cut 

 one across with your knife ; take this on the needle, having the cut edge, not the 

 edge of the leaf, upwards for examination, as you must observe whether the margin 

 is thickened or whether it is turned back. Examine the operculum, and dissect the 

 capsule. The peristome will probably be covered with the spore-cases escaped from 

 the interior ; slip your knife tinder the outer peristome and gently remove it, to see 

 the structure of the inner if it is present, and finally slit open the capsule with the 

 point of the knife, whose curve you will now find very useful. The spore-cases 

 will be scattered in abundance on the glass like silkworms' eggs, and these must 

 also be noticed. The earlier and later stages of the unripe capsules may be 

 examined by slices of them cut length-wise and cross-wise, and the male flowers 

 should be dissected. In all this much more will be spoilt than is used, but practice 

 will give the required nicety of hand, though some people will invariably be found 

 more ready at it than others. Tedious work there must always be in whatever is 



