116 HANDY EOOK OF 
But he whose roof is covered with this friendly moss, may 
sleep securely. The snorting of the fiery steed need not 
disturb his slumbers ; his children are safe in bed ; flashes 
of fire breathings of that tremendous racer may lighten 
by his windows, and fall upon his roof; but they do no 
harm among the dense and elevated tufts of the Great 
hairy-thread moss. This moss has little of external beauty 
to commend it except when growing in wide patches, and 
presenting in its aggregate, during rainy weather, a fine 
yellowish green, which often pleasingly contrasts with the 
grey bark of aged trees, or old thatch on barns and cottages. 
In dry seasons, the same moss looks of a dull grey or brown. 
As regards its obvious characteristics, we may briefly men- 
tion that the capsules are cylindrical, the lids conical and 
acute, terminated at the mouths with long fringes ; that the 
shoots are branched, the leaves reflected inversely, heart- 
shaped blunt, hair pointed. 
Beautiful specimens for preserving in moss books may be 
obtained from the family of Thread-moss, both as regards 
their form and hue. The .7?. aureum is one of these. In 
this, and in M. crtuhtm, the stem is half as long as the 
fruit-stalk, and extremely shining ; the strap-shaped leaves 
arc of a greenish golden hue, forming altogether a firm tuft, 
and distinguishable by their slenderness and length ; the 
fruit-stalks are an inch and more in length, purple, iridis- 
cent, and issuing from a brownish green involucrum, vary- 
ing occasionally from pale red to golden yellow, and 
upholding pear-shaped and green capsules, which, like the 
supporting shafts, change to. yellow red. Although of some- 
what rare occurrence, this elegantly varied moss grows on 
rocks in Nottingham Park, as also among the Berwyn 
Mountains, in the roads between Bala and Llangunnoy, 
and on Snowdon. 
The transition is natural from mosses to ferns. Compa - 
nions are they on many a weather-beaten crag, and wheu 
the sisterhood of mosses have prepared a dwelling-place for 
