NOTES ON MOSSES, ISI 

natural history ; for whatever department we study, we see in it 
the necessity for the highest as well as the most exact thought, 
requiring a keenness of observation and nice balancing of proba- 
bilitities specially fitted to the exigencies of our every-day life, 
while the acquired knowledge is a source of constant and ever in- 
creasing pleasure. 
In none of nature’s bye-paths is this so clearly seen as in the 
study of Mosses; their minute character and similarity, though 
with endless differences of form, testifying to the great law of crea- 
tion—unity of type with variety of development. In lichens, fungi, 
or algze there is nothing to lead the passing observer to higher 
types of vegetation ; but in Mosses we have, for the first time, dis- 
tinctions of roots, stems, branches, and leaves, clearly prefigurative 
of the flowering plants, which they may be said to equal if not 
excel in beauty of form and structure. 
To the botanical student, whose time and opportunities for 
rambling are limited, Mosses hold out every advantage, for they 
extend from the sea-shore to the highest snow-line—from the tro- 
pical plains of Africa to the mountains of Greenland ; and no spot 
is so barren or desolate that some species or other is not found, 
while some species or other is in fruit all the year round, contri- 
buting much in winter and early spring to the verdant covering of 
the earth and to the supply of oxygen, afterwards given out by the 
leaves of higher plants. From their cellular character they rapidly 
swell up and expand when soaked in water, and look as fresh as 
when growing, even after being dried for years in the herbarium. 
Mosses belong to the foliaceous or highest family of cryptogamic 
plant, and although of little direct economic use to man, are of im- 
mense value in nature as the precursors and diffusers of vegetation. 
The Sphagnacee, or Bog-Mosses, have been ranked as a distinct 
family by many writers, and their importance may be estimated 
when we recollect that we owe our peats to the decomposed tissues 
of Sphagna, and that peat bogs occupy one-tenth part of the whole 
of Ireland, and also furnish in the Highlands of Scotland the largest 
proportion of the fuel. The Sphagna are pale, almost white, in 
colour, and attain a length of six or seven feet in deep water. 
Their fruit has a lid but no peristome; the whole of the species 
fruiting in summer being found on bogs, mosses, and wet moors. 
Nine species are given by Wilson, but this number has been con- 
siderably extended by Dr. Braithwaite in his work on the British 
Sphagnocee. 
S. acutifolium, slender bog-moss. 
S. cymbifolium, blunt-leaved bog-moss. 
S. rubellum, red-dwarf bog-moss. 
S. compactum, compact bog-moss. 
iS. molluscum, pale-dwarf bog-moss. 
