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generality deemed an useless or insignificant part of the 
creation. That they are not is evident only from hence ; 
that he who made them has formed nothing in vain, but, 
on the contrary, has pronounced all, his creation to be 
good. Many of their uses we know ; that they have 
many more, which we know not, is unquestionable, since 
there is probably no one thing in the universe of which 
we can dare to assert that w^e know all their uses,. Thus 
much we are certain of with respect to mosses, that as 
ihey flourish most in winter, and at that time cover the 
ground with a beautiful green carpet, in many places 
which would otherwise be naked, and when little ver- 
dure is elsewhere to be seen, so at the same time they 
shelter and preserve the seeds, roots, gems, and embryo 
plants of many vegetables, which would otherwise 
perish ; they furnish materials for birds to build their 
nests with; they afford a warm winter's retreat for some 
quadrupeds, such as bears, dormice, and the like; and 
for numberless insects, which are the food of birds and 
fishes, and these a^ain the food or delidit of men. 
Many of them grow on rocks and barren places, and 
rotting away, afford the first principles of vegetation to 
other plants, which could never else have taken root 
there. Others grow in bogs and marshes, and, by con- 
tinual increase and decay, fill up and convert them 
either into fertile pastures, or into peat bogs, the source 
of inexhaustible fuel to the polar regions. 
They are applicable also to many domestic purposes. 
The Lycopodiums are some of them used in dying of 
yarn, and in medicine; Sphagnum Polytrkhum 
furnish convenient beds for the Laplanders; and the 
Hypmims are used in tiling of houses, stoppi ns; crevices 
