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THE MOSS WORLD. 
By B. BRAITHWAITE, M.lf., F.L.S. 
[PLATE LXXVIL] 
“Muscus in parietes liserens, contemptim a multis adspicitur, at iis, qui ad ex- 
amen structure et virimn descendant, infinitse admirationis occasionem 
praebet.” — Heinzius. 
M OST active students of British Botany arrive at a period 
when having mastered the flowering plants and ferns, they 
look round for some new field for investigation, in doubt which to 
“ take up ” of the four great groups of cellular plants still re- 
maining, the Mosses, Lichens, Algse or Fungi; each a world within 
itself, and offering material sufficient to occupy the longest life. 
Be it our task on the present occasion to say a few words on 
the first of these, and thus haply open out a new store of en- 
joyment to some who, hitherto, have not directed attention to 
them. 
By the ancients, as by the unlearned of the present day, 
mosses were but little regarded, few species were distinguished, 
and with them were confounded various lichens and algae. How, 
however, that the microscope is in such general use, there can 
be little difficulty in referring any cryptogamous plants to their 
proper class, and none has its characters better defined than 
that of mosses. The first publication which brought them 
specially into notice was the “ Historica Muscorum ” of 
Dillenius, published at Oxford in 1741, in which the species 
are carefully figured, with enlarged outlines of the leaves ; 
then came (1778-94) the various works of John Hedwig, in 
which were made known the whole process of their reproduc- 
tion and their anatomy, and thus Bryology was established on 
a sound basis ; following him came Bridel, Schwaegrichen, 
Hooker, and a host of other writers down to C. Muller, Wilson, 
Schimper, Lindberg, and Mitten of our own time, by whose 
publications the study has gradually been perfected. 
The moss world, however, includes among its citizens forms 
so diverse in habit and structure, that three great groups are 
at once recognisable. 
1. Buying, the frondose or true mosses, embracing probably 
