186 
trees, the Moss grows in a figure like a leaf.” He 
here undoubtedly alludes to Lichen , so frequent an 
omament of the old and noble denizens of the forest ; 
but we must remember that Lord Bacon lacked the 
assistance of that valuable servant to science, the 
microscope. This instrument was first used in Ger- 
many, in 1621 , about which time the work from 
which our extracts hâve been made was published. 
Within a century after, we find the Mosses’ right 
to be considered perfect in their structure fully ac- 
knowledged ; and this afibrds additional reason for 
supposing that it was through the aid of the micro¬ 
scope that they gained their proper position in the 
society of plants. Miller says, “ Though Moss was 
formerly supposed to be only an excrescence produced 
from the earth and trees, yet it is no less a perfect 
plant than those of greater magnitude, having roots, 
flowers, and seeds, yet cannot be propagated from 
seeds by any art.” Here we see an advance to- 
wards truth. Still, the haze of error is not wholly 
dispersed, for the latter part of the sentence con- 
tains an entirely mistaken notion—they are very 
easily raised from seed, the extreme minuteness of 
which enables it to be wafted every where. 
