FEKNS AND MOSSES. 9 
clivities at the foot of Ben Cruachan, between Craigalleach 
and Meal-greadha, where it grew profusely, and afforded, 
in a tine August morning, a spectacle such as few muscolo- 
gists have had the privilege of witnessing. 
The beautiful Fraelichian Gland-moss (S, freelicUianurri)j 
with its fruit-stalk pale towards the summit, of a fine pink 
colour near the base, was first identified as a native moss 
by Mrs. Griffith, who found it on the eastern side of Snow- 
don, about two hundred yards from the highest elevation. 
Look carefully for the Bryum-like Feather-moss (Hyp- 
mtm bryoides}. You may easily find it in shady places, 
woods, and ditch-banks, though very small; and this 
because of its capsules, which are edged at the mouth with 
a deep red fringe ; the leaves are green, though not pellucid, 
and the reddish fruit-stalks issue nearly at the end of the 
shoots. The authors of " Systematic English Botany" have 
in their possession specimens of this little plant, gathered 
by the adventurous Mungo Park in the interior of Africa. 
He had preserved them with great care, and there is reason 
to believe that they formed the identical species to which 
he so feelingly referred when speaking of his own utter 
helplessness, and the powerful effect produced on his mind 
by observing the minute construction of this small plant. 
"I was very much cast down," he said, "and was be- 
ginning to despair, yet not without reason, for I was then 
in the midst of a wild country, ranged over by savage 
animals, and by men still more savage, five hundred miles 
from the nearest European settlement ; and, considering 
my fate as certain, I was ready to lie down and die." At 
this moment the extraordinrry beauty of a small moss 
irresistibly caught his eye, and though unspeakably 
depressed, he could not look upon the delicate formation of 
its leaves and capsules without admiration. A train of 
soothing thoughts arose within him, and a consciousness 
that his Heavenly Father, who had thus called into being 
and preserved the tiny vegetable, beneath a burning sky, 
