NEGLECTED BEAUTIES. 
In a south-looking- window the young leaves require careful protection from the sun’s rays, 
as they may easily be scorched beyond recovery. 
Though exposed to the open air, and at a rather low temperature, in their native 
homes, these plants are less hardy than would be supposed, and therefore should be 
carefully shielded from strong, drying winds, whether hot or cold. 
The most common plant of the whole order is the Calluna vulgaris, which covers 
extensive tracts of waste moors throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and which is also 
found sparsely in Canada and our New England States. This is more hardy than any 
of the other species, and will flourish in almost any soil with a temperature under fifty; 
but in more southern latitudes it requires to be shaded in hot weather. 
MOSSES. 
USCI, or Mosses, which comprise three orders and thirty-six 
genera of cryptogamous plants, are among the lower forms of 
vegetable life. In the economy of nature they come next to the 
Lichenes, or Lichens, serving by their decay to form a suitable 
soil for the more beautiful and more useful plants. They grow in 
such dense, compact masses — often a hundred to a square inch — 
that their remains constitute a bed in which plants of a higher order 
may strike root. They are to be found in all climates and on all soils, requiring 
as absolutely essential only a constant, gentle moisture. The Mosses cover with 
a coat of emerald green the trunks of trees, the sides and summits of barren 
rocks, the moldering walls of old ruins, the margins of running brooks, the 
crevices of damp, subterranean caves and the like. The Sphagnum palustre, or 
Gray Bog-moss, is much used in Lapland and other countries of North Europe for bed¬ 
ding and coverlets. When flattened out by use, they can be renovated so as to assume 
their original elasticity by being soaked in water and again dried. The tenacity of life in 
the Mosses is truly wonderful; they have been known to have rooted and grown afresh 
after having lain pressed in a herbarium for thirty years. 
In collections of plants, it is found worth while to cultivate them as toppings for the 
stands, pots or boxes in which ornamental plants are grown. They prevent a too rapid 
evaporation of the moisture, where it is desirable to retain it, besides adding a neatness 
which the uncovered soil does not present. Some amateurs make a specialty of growing 
a patch of Mosses for the yard or house, because of their intrinsic beauty, and the refresh¬ 
ing greenness of the dense, compact mass in which they grow. They can be studied to 
advantage only with the aid of a microscope, and are by that means found to present the 
appearance of miniature trees and various other curious forms. The Tortulas resemble 
small, fine screws, whence their name. The Ilypnums, or Feather Mosses, are probably 
the most numerous, and are often exceedingly pretty, resembling miniature ferns, feathers, 
or trees. 
