6 HAKDr BOOK OF 
" This is the field of the sluggard ; it has lain untilled for 
at least two years. ' Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a 
little folding of the hands to sleep : so shall his poverty 
come as one that travelleth, and his want as an armed 
man.' " (Prov. vi. 10.) 
" Of rills and fountains, guardian maid," 
the elegant and often-floating Greater Water-moss delights 
in humid places. The generic name, Fontinalis, designates 
her station among fresh springs and rivulets ; the specific 
one has a local meaning, yet, true to the former appellation, 
this small moss is found on rocks and the roots of trees, in 
brooks and rivulets, slow streams and ponds, but most espe- 
cially beside cataracts, flourishing' luxuriantly, where the 
roar of headlong waters and their turmoil is greatest. 
Hence the Water-moss thrives well in Sweden, and was 
associated by Linnseus with many a legend-haunted spot. 
The .natives collect large quantities, with which to fill up 
the spaces between their large chimneys and the walls of 
their houses ; and thus, by excluding the air, to prevent 
the action of fire. The specific name was given in refer- 
ence to this valuable quality. Pale reddish tufts of the 
Conferva, nana may occasionally be seen attached to this 
species in alpine rivers. 
Those who feel strongly within them the " ardent inex- 
tinguishable thirst of nature," which Cowper well describes, 
and who, remembering the mosses they loved in childhood, 
would again seek for such beside the hum of the great city, 
may find the Lesser Water-moss (F. minor] growing abun- 
dantly on. the walls of Lambeth Palace, fronting the 
Thames. Vainly, Tiowever, would they seek for the F. 
squamosa ; of this the long and branched shoots uniformly 
float in the direction of whatever stream it affects ; the 
dark-g-rccn leaves become black when dry, and the whole 
plant itself assumes siich a glistening appearance that 
Bauhin applied to it the epithet lucens. 
