THE CULTIVATIO^f OF MOSSES. 
a domesticated collection be prized by those muscologists who, either for want of opportunity or incli- 
nation, pm-sue their studies by the fii-eside in the cold days of winter, instead of going abroad at that 
season of Cryptogamic dehghts, to seek the 
" Mosses cool and vret" 
I 
that adorn the craggy steeps with then- everlastiug Yerdui-e. 
Nor should we lose sight of the more important advantages likely to be offered by the cultivation of 
Mosses in another point of view. By carefully watching the evolution of the various organs of parti- 
cular individuals throughout the enth'e period of their existence, many important facts may be brought 
to light tending to elucidate some of the obscm'e points of Muscological science, and calculated in an 
especial manner to give us more accurate views of these plants, and much new information concerning 
their general histoi-y, structm'e, and habits. "Were the attention of cultivators specially dii-ected to the 
subject, we doubt not but some experience of the conditions best adapted for the development of the 
vai'ious species would soon enable them to bring into a fi'uetLfying condition some of those mosses whose 
fi'uit is scarcely ever found at the native stations, although the barren plants occiu- in profusion. 
Bryum alpinum is an instance of this, and so is B. roseum ; but perhaps a better example than either 
will be found in the case of Dicranum glaucum, which, although its large cushion-like clumps occm' in 
the greatest abundance in every highland bog, few botanists indeed have ever gathered in a state of 
fnictitication. 
The investigations of botanists into the history of Mosses have never been pursued with a view to 
the cultivation of these cm'ious httle plants, and thus the Moss grower will find great ditficulty in 
gaining much special information respecting the species that may be successfully cultivated, as well as 
in regard to the particular treatment which the different kinds require, for although they form a tribe 
of plants peculiar to themselves in theu- structm-e and habits, and differ widely from every other tribe 
with which the cultivator has to do, they nevertheless exhibit a great diversity among themselves in 
the choice of situations for their growth, and in their general habits, all of which must be taken into 
consideration to Lnsui-e their successful cultivation. 
The raising of JMosses fi-om sjmres (analagous to seeds in the higher plants) will always be attended 
with difficulties, and is an operation that requires the exercise of more care and attention than may 
reasonably be expected from the generality of cultivators ; and although the inquu'er into the physio- 
logy and structure of the Musci may often adopt this method of raising them, in order to study closely 
the development of the plant, and the successive formation of its various organs, certain it is that this 
mode of propagation will never be of much practical service. The cultivator need not send his list to 
the Seedsman ; he must seek the Mosses he wants in the sunny and shady spots of verdant loveliness, 
where Flora's liberal hand has scattered them so freely ; and there he will find abundance of well grown 
plants fit for his pm'pose. 
In cultivating Mosses the object should be to imitate as nearly as possible those conditions under 
which particular species is observed to flom-ish best in its natural habitats. Various species of Grim- 
mia and Andrrea, as well as many others with which the ardent collector will soon become acquainted, 
seek their homes on the face of the bare and bleak rock, themselves and the grey lichens the only traces 
of vegetation there. The FontinaUs antipyr-etica — the fire-pi-oof Moss of the Swedes, and the various 
species of the genus Sphagnum &c, luxmiate in the watery element, preferring the still pools and 
sluggish sti-eams of the peat bogs or the margins of highland lakes ; while Hypnum ruscifoUum covers 
with its deep green verdure the moist stones and rocks amid the continual dashing of the waterfall ; 
and a host of other not less lovely forms are nursed by the spray that rises fi-om these falKng waters. 
The greater number of the numerous family of Hypnum creeping along in the shady corners of rocky 
j^laces, and in the woods form the " mossy carpet," which has so dehghted our Natm'e-loving poets. 
Many of the Brya likewise affect such situations, and B. roseum, B. ligulatum and some others well 
suited for cultivation deUght in the cool and shady recesses of the woods where they enjoy a perpetual 
immunity fi'om heat and drought in the continually humid atmosphere peculiar to such situations. 
The Funaria hygrometriea, Encalypta vulgaris, Tortula mui-alis, and Bryum argenteum, are " more 
akin to human things," and take up their abodes beside or on the walls and roofs of our dwellings. 
Provision must therefore be made for securing all these varied conditions in order successfully to culti- 
vate a good collection of Mosses. It shoidd however be kept in view that they wiU all succeed well in, 
and indeed require, a shady situation, and may be grown somewhat after the manner of Alpines, ob- 
serving the precaution in all cases to give them lai'ge sized pots, whereby the highly injm-ious effects of 
51, heat and drought may be the more readUy guarded against. A) 
In proceeding to make a collection, a difficulty will at once strike the beginner as to how he is to 
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