FEfiXS AND MOSSES. 17 
vated regions, and that the trees are proportionally smaller 
in such as occupy the higher levels. De Luc and Walker 
accordingly infer, that the trees grew on the spot, as timber 
uniformily attains a greater size in low and sheltered places. 
The leaves also, and fruits of several species, are continually 
found immersed in moss, together with the parent trees ; 
as, for instance, leaves and acorns of the oak, the cones and 
leaves of fir, and nuts of the hazel. 
It is more than probable, that no single plant throughout 
the vegetable world is so universally diffused as the Bog- 
moss. Other plants, doubtless, such as reeds and rushes, 
may be usually "traced in peat, but wherever this substance 
is discovered, the" Sphagnum constitutes its chief ingredient, 
and ruay be readily discriminated. When formed on a de- 
clivity in mountainous regions damp with springs, and 
where clouds continually rest, it scarcely ever exceeds four 
feet; when subsisting, on the contrary, in bogs and low 
grounds, it is occasionally forty feet thick, and upwards 
which difference may, in some respects, be accounted for by 
the volume of water it contains. 
And yet, though widely diffused, abounding in propor- 
tion to its distance from the Equator, and becoming not only 
more frequent, but more inflammable in northern latitudes 
this valuable moss is subjected to certain laws, which re- 
strict its advance within the tropics. It is, "moreover, rarely 
found even in the south of France and Spain ; and although 
most plants contribute in warm climates to the production 
of peat, it is a singular fact, that neither the Sphagnun, 
nor any other kind of moss, enters into the composition of 
South American peat, which is chiefly formed of the Astalia 
pumila. 
Our native moss is, therefore, never discovered in the 
Brazils ; not even in the swampy portions of her vast allu- 
vial plains, drained by the sea-like Plata : on the eastern 
side of South America ; nor in the island of Chiloe on the 
west. When, however, an English traveller reaches th 
c 
