INTRODUCTION. 



29 



thoroughly done, and there will be times when even the most ardent spirits flag, and 

 the most keen interest tires ; the very use of the might of the hand brings the 

 need of the rest of the labouring man, and work will be work, and play will be 

 play, until the end of this working world. We cannot if we would change one 

 into another, but love of the study will carry any one over the rough ground and 

 through the tedious work which would make those without it turn aside and 

 falter. 



A very interesting mode of studying mosses is by their cultivation, which may, 

 on a humble scale, be practised as follows. Take a garden-saucer, or a seed-pan, 

 fill it about half-way with small rough stones, making the bed highest in the 

 middle, have ready as many tufts of moss as will cover the surface of the stones, 

 and arrange them according to taste, keeping the small compact mosses for the 

 outside, but letting none stray over the edge of the saucer, or the moisture will 

 drip from them. A group of the high tree-like mosses may be in the centre, and 

 the intervening space can be filled with different feather-mosses. Be sure that 

 the saucer is packed well, or the tufts will come to pieces ; indeed it is better that 

 they should a little overlap each other, and then no raw edges will be seen. If 

 the saucer is a large one, place it on a board or tray, if small, on a plate ; give it a 

 thorough watering, and cover it with a bell-glass, which should be of sufficient size 

 to come down upon the stand. Let it remain in a shady part of the room, the heat 

 keeping up evaporation, the moisture will be condensed by the glass, and thus a 

 damp atmosphere will be formed, without which no amount of ROOT-watering 

 would keep the mosses fresh in the drying climate of a sitting-room. Thus for 

 months together all manner of changes may be observed ; the dying out of old 

 plants, the growth of the seed, the development of the fresh plants, and the 

 springing up most probably of new species, whose seeds were brought in un- 

 wittingly. The properties of mosses may also be investigated; for instance, the 

 lovely Mnvum undulatum, by its own decomposition, speedily makes water foul in 

 which it is placed, and if Isofhecivm alopecurtim be put under a bell-glass in full 

 sun-shine, and allowed to remain there, on removing the glass it will exhale the 

 resinous smell of a pine tree in summer. 



A moss-garden may be formed out of doors as easily as a fernery, by bring- 

 ing together stones (or rocks if practicable) in a shady part of the grounds, and 

 putting the tufts into canny holes and corners among them, or laying them about 



