THE MOSS WORLD. 
367 
10,000 species, of which about 550 enter into the British 
Flora. These have spores free from spiral threads, which 
produce on germination a branched confervoid prothallium, 
the leaves undivided, consisting of uniform cells, the branches 
dichotomous or pinnate, the capsule opening usually by a lid 
and enclosing a spore sac. 
2. Sphagnim, the Bogmosses, a limited group, having spores 
without spiral threads, which produce on germination a 
lichenoid prothallium, the leaves composed of two kinds of 
cells, the larger perforated and containing spiral fibres, the 
branches in lateral bundles of three to ten, the capsule sessile 
on a lateral naked branch. 
3. HEPATicnyE, the Liverworts, have spores with which are 
mixed elaters or spiral threads, producing a lichenoid pro- 
thallium, leaves nerveless, often lobed and furnished with 
stipules, or absent, and the whole plant resembling the thallus 
of a lichen ; capsule without operculum splitting into four 
separate pieces, or sometimes two-valved, or clustered on a 
receptacle and opening by teeth. 
We shall on the present occasion confine our attention solely 
to the frondose mosses, and pass in review the various organs 
revealed to us by the microscope. They have been called 
flowerless plants, but incorrectly, for we shall see that the re- 
productive organs though minute are very distinct, and their 
function is unmistakable ; they are natives of every clime, and 
from sea-shore to the limit of perpetual snow are everywhere 
distributed, preferring, however, mountainous and woodland 
districts, because there is moisture most abundant ; and for this 
reason also we find them most luxuriant in winter and spring, 
thus compensating for the absence of the more highly organised 
plants, which no sooner cover the surface of the- earth than our 
little mosses are no longer noticed. 
The denizens of the moss world are never found leading a 
solitary existence, but are either gregarious or more commonly 
densely aggregated into tufts or mats, which may contain 
hundreds of individuals ; their size also is very variable, some 
species of Fjohemerum not exceeding ^ inch in height, while 
Polytrichum commune and some Hypnoid mosses attain a foot. 
We will take as our type the cosmopolitan Funaria hygro- 
metrica , never absent from the ballast of our railway-banks, 
brick-fields, and heaths ; and having carried home a tuft, let us 
expand it in water and detach a single plant. 
Vegetative System. 
First, we observe our Funaria has roots like all other mosses, 
and these probably not so much required for absorption as in 
