26 HANDY BOOK OF 
ever minute, and most probably the smallest of British 
mosses, every part is elaborately adorned : the. egg-shaped 
seed-vessels are pointed, and of a tawny hue when ripe ; 
and the veil which serves to protect the seeds from the 
effects of weather, or to hide them from the visitations 
of small Birds, is most exquisitely finished. 
The P. alternifolium, or Alternate-leaved Earth-moss, 
has its own specific character. It forms small green tufts, 
and the leaves, when examined separately, are short, awl- 
shaped, alternate, rather bulging at the base, and expanding 
at the ends. The Crooked- stalked (P. curvifolium} in like 
manner reveals specific differences, although hardly visible 
to the naked eye unless growing in clusters, and bearing its 
swollen capsules on small stems. What, it may be asked, 
are those peculiar differences ? Straightness in the spear- 
shaped leaves that form the involucrum, or veil, while the 
other leaves are egg spear-shaped, as also bending fruit- 
stalks, terminated by oval seed-vessels, brown and mottled 
when fully ripe. Such are the peculiarities of this scarcely 
visible moss, which render it different from any other of its 
kind, as the yew is different from the poplar. In the 
Bearded Earth -moss (P. piliferum), we recognize a remark- 
able hoary appearance, occasioned by the long white filiform, 
extremities of the leaves. 
The above-mentioned are most common among those 
mosses which prepare the way for large vegetable develop- 
ments, and enable seeds to germinate even in the fissures 
and crannies of granite rocks. In the Alpine passes all is 
terrible and full of gloom. Giant oaks, grasping with their 
firm roots immense masses of overarching rocks, fling their 
tortuous and rugged branches far over the defile, and often 
reach the opposite bank, of which the summit is lost amid 
the shade of intermingling boughs. 
The beautiful vale of Tempe, on the contrary, offers an 
instance of the fine effect produced by progressive vegeta- 
tion. Towards the lower part of this wild spot, the cliffs 
