FEHNS AND MOSSES. 5 
winter ! they hear of rich collections in Natural History, 
and are discontented -with their lot ; though many a rare 
plant, which men have brought with toil and hazard from 
far-oft' regions, is inferior to such as grow beside our paths 
at home. Go, then, into the woods and lanes, and collect 
those beautiful mosses, which strike their tiny roots into a 
thin soil, which root themselves in the crevices of large 
stones, or may be often seen through clear falling waters, 
that stream over the projecting rocks, beneath the arch of 
which they grow luxuriantly. I have gathered many such 
in days long past, and often look upon them with great 
pleasure, wondering that those who peril life and limb in 
obtaining sea-weeds, beside the roar of ocean, or among 
rock basins, or climb hi<fh cliffs in search of plants, should 
never think of collecting mosses. And yet mosses are 
beautiful and varied the first, as regards their exquisite 
ramifications and often brilliant tints ; the second, because 
no two of them are alike, though growing side by side, 
beneath the spray of the same fountain, or cherished by 
vapours ascending from the same damp soil. 
Such plants have a prescribed use not obvious, perhaps, 
but real. Like flowers, that successively emerge from out 
the earth, they each present a home, or storehouse, to some 
wayfaring insect ; small birds select the finest kinds for 
their nests, and often feed upon the seeds that ripen, abun- 
dantly at all seasons. The Bog-moss (Junyermanniii), 
covers deep bogs with its spongy substance, and thus, by 
continual decay and renovation, produces abundance of 
vegetable mould, and turns them by degrees into fertile 
meadows. The loosely-matted patches are used for burn- 
ing ; and in many mining districts are in great request for 
forges. 
The Long-stalked Earth-moss (Musci phascum) is a 
beacon-plant. If, in passing, its rich chesnut-red fruit- 
stalks and capsules are seen emerging from out a bed of 
verdure, you may fancy that a soft voice says to you, 
