Of Mofs v &c, 309 
top of each ns at A A A; others a little oblong as .at B, 
others a little broken as at C, and others that were burfb 
afunder forming a kind of bloffoms with leaves, as at D, 
Of rnofs, Sec, 
M oss is a plant no lefs worthy a mlcrofcopic con- 
fideration tlian the moll elegant plant that grows, 
and for its fhape and beaut/ may be compared with any 
other. It has a root almofl like a (eedy par/nip, firt* 543* 
fumifhed with fmall firings and fuckers, all of them being 
as curioufly branched as the roo‘s of much bigger vege¬ 
tables ; from this fprings the idem or body of the plant, 
which is finely creafed or fluted ; on the hides of this are 
clofe and thickly fet a multitude of well fliaped leaves, 
fome of them of a roundifh, others of a longer fhape; all 
the furface on each fide the leaf is curioufly covered with 
a multitude of little oblong tranfparerit bodies, as at D, 
fig. 546. From the tops of the leaves proceeds a trans¬ 
parent hair or thorn; the ftem (hoots out into a long 
round flalk, which on cutting is found to be hollow 
without any knot or flop, from its bottom where the 
leaves encompafs it, to the top on which grows a large 
feed-cafe A, covered with a thin and more whitifn (kin 
hg- 544* terminated in a long thorny top, which at 
full covers all the cafe, and by degrees, as that fwells, 
the fkin cleaves, and at laffc falls off together with its 
thorny top, leaving the feed-cafe to ripen, and fcatter its 
feed, at a place underneath this cap B, which before the 
feed is ripe appears like a fluted metal button, without 
any hole in the middle; but, as it ripens, the button 
grows bigger, and a hole appears in the middle of it E, 
%* 545 * out °f which, in all probability, the feed falls ; 
for as it ripens by the provifion of nature that end of this 
- X 3 cafe 
