FEKN T S AND MOSSES. ib 
moment from whence the glancing lights proceeded ; they 
would attribute them rather to some peculiarity in the 
strata of which the mine is composed, or to a kind of glis- 
tening spar that reflects the light of day. And yet that 
phosphorescence has a vegetable origin, an emblem, we have 
thought, of those gentle and retiring ones who render 
cheerful homes that have nought else of gladness to com- 
mend them, who shed the light of their pure examples OA'er 
the moral gloom by which they are enveloped. 
Dartmoor abounds in mosses of all shapes, and tints of 
green ; those which delight in arid places find their dwell- 
ings on rocks and scarry banks, on cromlechs, and huge 
rocking-stones, fixed by time or accident ; such as thrive 
best in moisture grow profusely beside the racing streams 
that water its wide expanse ; old trees uphold to light and 
air others of a pendulous character ; while not a few remain 
contentedly on maternal earth. Among these the Hypnum 
MJrtcwMj or Soft-ribbed Feather-moss though occasionally 
affecting the trunks of trees and walls, carpets wide spaces 
on the moor, and exhibits the richness and softness of silk. 
When growing on the trunks and branches of trees, it may 
be scarcely removed entire, its small roots adhering so firmly 
to the bark; the leaves are soft and shining, slender, 
closely tiled, and ending in long hairs ; the branches mostly 
point one way, with long, creeping, crowded shoots ; the 
capsules are long, nearly cylindrical, but thickest at the 
base ; and though minute, the fringe which surrounds the 
distinctly-formed mouth is white, with a beaked lid, and 
pale-coloured veil. 
Xone among British mosses are more pleasing to the eye, 
both in form and colour, than the Hypnum purum, or 
otless Silky Feather-moss, common among woods, on 
]>,..., and in meadows. Dartmoor is one of its common 
habitats ; it grows equally in places open to the sun, and 
ade of those few memorial trees that linger 
in their loneliness and sterility, where once extended a 
