THE MOSS WOULD. 
377 
and frequently impress a marked feature on the landscape, for 
species of Polytrichum and Khacomitrium frequently cover 
extensive areas, to the exclusion of all other forms. Again, 
certain species — and some of these, too, among the most 
elegant — flourish luxuriantly in these elevated regions, which 
we should look for in vain at a lower level, as Splachnaceas 
Conostomum, various species of (xrimmia and Andresea, 
Hypnum Halleri, callichroum, reflexum, &c. ; thus everywhere 
covering the hare places of the earth with a verdant carpet 
ere yet Spring dare put forth her flowers — clasping in their 
tender arms the crumbling stone, and smoothing the scarred 
face and furrowed cheek of the time-worn tower, or clothing 
the decaying trees with a mantle of green of varied shades, 
transforming each into a garden where the observing eye may 
delight to trace a miniature resemblance to the pine-woods, 
aloes, yuccas, and sedums among higher plants. 
Uses. 
The old writers delighted to attribute many uses to mosses, 
yet, except among the most primitive races, few of them 
minister directly to the wants of man ; the Sphagnums alone 
form the first origin of peat, which is still largely consumed 
for fuel. Linnseus tells us that Polytrichum commune was 
used by the Laplanders for beds, and highly praises it for not 
harbouring insects or any infectious disease ; and this plant is 
still used in the dales of the north of England for the manu- 
facture of small brooms ; Splachnum Wormskioldii also forms 
the wick for the simple lamp of the Eskimos. 
Yet although their services in human economy are so small, 
in that of Nature how great is their end ! The bear lines his 
winter quarters with a thick bed of Polytrichum ; the squirrel 
and dormouse, and whole tribes of birds, use Hypnums as 
material for their nests ; and if we shake a tuft of moss over 
paper, we shall find that it harbours a population we little 
dreamed of — elegant little mollusca feeding among the 
branches, with tiny beetles and podurse and curious acari 
hiding at the roots. 
Again, mosses have been termed the pioneers of vegetation, 
for, being able to establish themselves where little else can 
maintain a footing, they penetrate with their slender radicles 
the smallest crevices, and slowly disintegrate the substratum on 
which they grow, constantly arresting by their interwoven 
tufts the dust-grains wafted on every breeze, and ever decaying 
below, ever extending above, they are slowly but surely accu- 
mulating material capable of supporting a higher order of 
vegetation. 
