10 HANDY BOOK OF 
and on an arid soil, would not desert an helpless traveller 
one whom He had made in His own image. Thus re-assured 
the narrator went on his way, trusting that relief was at 
hand, and he was not disappointed. 
. Why is it that this small species, which affects our shady 
woods and ditch-banks, should grow in Africa that land 
of cloudless skies and springless deserts ? There are 
problems in Natural History which the most learned cannot 
solve. 
The blunt, fern-like Feather-moss (Hypnum trichoma- 
noides], indigenous on the roots of trees, and in ditches 
among woods, may be easily recognized by observing a 
remarkable curvature in the scimitar -shaped leaf a 
peculiarity belonging exclusively to this species. 
Few perhaps among our native tribes add more to the 
picturesque effect of weather-beaten masses of rock or stone 
than the H. Ilattcri, or Hallerian Feather-moss, dis- 
covered by Dr. Greville on Ben Lawers. This plant creeps 
closely on its growing-place, in diffused tufts, of a rich 
yellowish or reddish-brown colour, and is sometimes 
pleasingly contrasted with the "Waved Feather-moss 
(P. undulatum), an exquisitely fine species, about a span 
long, and of which the leaves are white and membranous. 
The Undulatum mostly affects woods and shady places ; it 
is ftnind also on Snowdon, and when closely examined, 
exhibits a beautiful variety of tints in its component parts. 
The fruit is long, slender, reddish ; the veil straw-coloured, 
with a brown spot at the end ; rib of each shoot yellowish ; 
and the leaves tender, pellucid, smooth, shiny, and pale 
green. 
Nor less attractive is the reddish Shining Feather-moss 
(II. rufescens), which thrives best where the torrent is 
foaming. Its favourite locality is, therefore, the wet rocks 
in the Highlands of Scotland, and nowhere is it more 
abundant than on the perpendicular cliffs that start abruptly 
by the falls of Moness. 
