242 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
spots, which they cover with their own substance, 
and gradually change into a fertile soil : they spread 
themselves over marshes, and soon transform them 
into smiling plains. In winter, when no other 
plants vegetate, they take up the hydrogen and the 
carbon which vitiate the air we breathe, and give it 
back to us charged with the oxygen which purifies 
it. In summer they form, beneath overarching 
trees, carpets on which the shepherd, the lover, 
and the poet, alike delight to rest. The little birds 
line with it the nests which they prepare for their 
infant families, and the squirrel constructs with it 
his circular dwelling. Nay, it may be asserted that 
but for the Mosses part of our globe would be un- 
inhabitable. 
At the extremity of the earth, the Laplanders 
cover with Moss the subterranean abodes, where, 
collected in families, they defy the longest and se- 
verest winters. Their numerous herds of reindeer 
have no other food, yet they supply their owners 
with delicious milk, nutritious flesh, and warm 
clothing ; thus combining for the poor Laplander all 
the advantages that we derive from the cow, the 
horse, and the sheep. 
Thus Nature dispenses her bounty in the most 
