INTRODUCTION. 



31 



Section V. 



THE USE OF MOSSES. 



Nothing is useless in creation. The tiniest insects, the smallest mosses, have their uses. 



Rev. J. C. Ryle. 



~ HE ends for which mosses are designed are precisely those which 



A their structure is best calculated to fulfil. They need depth, thick- 

 ness, and warmth ; these are obtained by their multitude of stems 

 crossing and recrossing each other ; softness, gained by their infinity 

 of little leaves ; flexibility and toughness, which we find in their stems ; power 

 to make their way anywhere, which is given by the minuteness of their seeds ; 

 ability to maintain life, and hardihood of constitution, wherewith they are endowed 

 through their cellular texture and atmospheric nourishment. 



In the order of the universe we find that the use of mosses is primarily to 

 other and more highly organized plants. They are spread at the roots of trees, 

 and by their depth keep the warmth about them in whiter, and the moisture in 

 summer, which are necessary to their growth. But when they grow on their trunks 

 and branches, mosses injure trees, by clogging their breathing pores. We next 

 find that mosses are useful to the insect tribe, countless numbers of which find 

 homes among their branches, and roam about in then* shades as in mighty 

 forests, and look with their thousand eyes upon the wonders of their gauzy leaves, 

 and sun their wings of purple and of gold, and burnish their shining armour upon 

 the polished columns of their urns. Over her nest the carder-bee constructs a 

 dome of moss • and ascending higher yet, we find the bird's nest " built of wool 

 and hay and moss." "Like loves like," and mosses and birds are formed to be 

 together, for every mossy bank is full of mimic birds'-nests, with little brown 

 heads peeping up from amid the feathers; 1 with moss the squirrel lines his nest, 



1 Nor is this the only instance of such affinity. The mouse-loving cat and the mouse-loving 

 owl are alike from kittenkood and owlethood to old age. The sulphur-coloured butterfly, which 

 revives to bear the earliest primrose company, is itself like a flying primrose. The blossom of the 



