n6 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
are found not only upon the banks, but even in 
the water of brooks. Some species of moss attach 
to trees and flourish in the interstices of old bark. It 
may be to these, plants of the genera of Hypnum, 
Tortula, Grimnia, etc., that the poet refers in the 
lines: 
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, 
O’ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe. 
Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 94. 
To man they are a specially useful group. Moss 
is used in packing flowers and vegetables, and one 
genus. Poly trichum, a slightly astringent group, was 
at one time used in medicine. We have about 570 
native species and about 190 liverworts. 
In other places in which the poet mentions moss 
he is thinking of another group of plants, no wit less 
beautiful—plants of a humble crustaceous nature, 
but which stain our ancient buildings and rugged 
trees with a thousand beautiful tints. The bright 
golden Lecanora, the snow-white Lecidea, each play 
their part in the adornment of Nature, and help to 
make the landscape more varied and pleasant to the 
eye of man. In Shakespeare we get: 
These moss’d trees, 
That have outlived the eagle. 
Timon of Athens , IV. iii. 223 ; 
and, again : 
Under an oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age 
And high top bald with dry antiquity. 
As You Like It, IV. iii. 105. 
The lichens weathering with gray the “ moss’d 
trees ” are chiefly of the genus Ramalina, and such 
lichens as Premia prunastri and its allies. There are 
also the olive and gray foliaceous lichens of the 
genus Parmelia, many of which are used in dyeing. 
