AND ilOSSES. 109 
moss they answer the same end as those of the water-lily, 
and all such plants as are peculiarly affected by light or 
moisture. 
The essential characteristics of the Bryum palustre, or 
Forked fringe-moss, according to the testimony of Hooker 
and Taylor, consists in the stems being much branched, the 
leaves lanceolate, obtuse, entire, with margins revolute; the 
capsules ovate, oblique, sulcated, lids conical. We recog- 
nize in this rarely-noticed species a beautiful provision for 
the dispersion of those innumerable seeds which are con- 
tained in the small ribbed capsules : the stems, previously 
upright and holding their seed-vessels erect, for the obvious 
purpose of obtaining as much air and light as possible, bend 
downwards when the seeds are fully ripe and the lid ready 
to fall off. When the seeds arc shed, the capsules become 
crooked wherefore, we know not ; yet doubtless for some 
purpose connected with the vegetable economy of the 
plant. 
Subjects of engrossing interest, either as respects their 
beauty or rarity, or the memorial sites among which they 
grow, may be selected from the rugged bank that first 
attracted our attention. Here is the Minium orcuatum, or 
Curved-stalked fringe-moss of Dicks and Withering, as- 
signed to the Bryum tribe, an extremely beautiful moss, 
unknown on the continent, though of common occurrence in 
the mountainous districts of Ireland, and not unfrequently 
in many parts of England. The stems are upright, but 
spreading and serrulated. The barren flowers are terminated 
and stalk-like ; the fruit-stalks terminal, crooked, and sur- 
rounded by young shoots. The golden yellow globular 
capsules have narrow mouths, their fringes are varied with 
short, upright, acute red teeth, and the minute lids are 
scarcely beaked. A. fuscous woolly substance constantly 
surrounds the shoots a material, it may be, for the winter 
domicile of some dependent insect. I^or less vivid than the 
capsules are the fruit-stalks, which spring from out the base 
