34 



BRITISH MOSSES. 



undulatum, and one or two others, might be used in this way. Possibly the feather 

 mosses in single sprays might be imitated in frosted silver, but by no means used 

 in this way as borders for large dishes or massive salvers, rather as small personal 

 ornaments. 



To all decorations in real flowers moss forms the most beautiful and appropriate 

 ground- work. A good feature in a " Diner a la Russe " would be a plateau of moss, 

 into which the dishes should fit, or from which they should rise ; these, it is need- 

 less to say, of as simple form as possible, and having their edges in unbroken 

 curves. The plateau may be made on the principle of a soup-plate, a couple of 

 inches deep, and with a broad plain edging of glass or silver, and filled with moss, 

 upon which might be arranged primroses, masses of gorse, roses, scarlet geraniums, 

 or red rhododendrons and camellias, avoiding blue and lilac, which will not show 

 by candlelight, and choosing rather crimson, scarlet, yellow, or white flowers. By 

 this means may Birnam Wood be easily brought to Dunsinane. The winter 

 gardens, now so much in vogue for drawing-room ornamentation, might be greatly 

 improved by the use of moss. A portable flower-bed can be formed by planting 

 from five to ten hyacinths in a seed-pan, and covering the surface of the earth with 

 mosses arranged as we have before recommended for their cultivation. If the 

 mosses are carefully placed, just as the green hyacinth-cone is expanding into a 

 star, and sprinkled well when watered, they will keep fresh until the plants have 

 finished flowering. 



There are better and higher uses than these for mosses ; and this introduction 

 to their study having reached well-nigh its last page, we would dwell on them for a 

 moment ere it is closed. It appears that in very many of His works the Creator of 

 the world has in view the principal objects of making them fill up the measure of that 

 " rejoicing " which we are told they cause Him ; that they should bear their part 

 in completing the " fulness of the earth," which is His ; and that they should, by 

 the fitness and contrivance manifested in their structure, and the beauty of their 

 external fashioning, impress upon us how infinite must be the mind which can 

 make every detail so perfect. We can, in a measure, comprehend why care and 

 skill and wisdom of law should be brought to bear upon the balancing of a world 

 or the regulation of a season, — we ourselves take trouble about things of much 

 importance. But about things of no importance ? Take a moss into your hand. 

 Its kind might perish off the earth and none would miss it. Yet think what 



