ts, though holding no
rank in the eyes of a florist, are yet deeply interesting, perhaps no
family of plants more so, to those who have time and patience to study
them. The Club Mosses, indeed, may claim a place in the garden if they
can only be induced to grow, but that is a difficult task, and the
tenderer Lycopodiums are always favourites when well grown among
greenhouse Ferns; but for the most part, the Mosses must be studied in
their native haunts, and when so studied, they are found to be full of
beauty and of wonderful construction. Nor are they without use, and it
is rather strange that Shakespeare should have so markedly called them
"idle," or useless, considering that in his day many medical virtues
were attributed to them. This reputation for medical virtues they have
now all lost, except the Iceland Moss, which is still in use for
invalids; but the Mosses have other uses. The Reindeer Moss (_Cladonia
rangiferina_) and Roch-hair (_Alectoria jubata_) are indispensable to
the Laplander as food for his reindeer, and Usnea florida is used in
North America as food for cattle; the Iceland Moss (_Cetraria
Islandica_) is equally indispensable as an article of food to all the
inhabitants of the extreme North; and the Tripe de la Roche (_Gyrophora
cylindrica_) has furnished food to the Arctic explorers when no other
food could be obtained; while many dyes are produced from the Lichens,
especially the Cudbear (a most discordant corruption of the name of the
discoverer, Mr. Cuthbert), which is the produce of the Rock Moss
(_Lecanora tartarea_). So that even to us the Mosses have their uses,
even if they do not reach the uses that they have in North Sweden,
where, according to Miss Bremer, "the forest, which is the countryman's
workshop, is his storehouse, too. With the various Lichens that grow
upon the trees and rocks, he cures the virulent diseases with which he
is sometimes afflicted, dyes the articles of clothes which he wears, and
poisons the noxious and dangerous animals which annoy him."

As to the beauty of Mosses and Lichens we have only to ask any
artist or go into any exhibition of pictures. Their great beauty
has been so lovingly described by Ruskin ("Modern Painters"), that
no one can venture to do more than quote his description. It is well
known to many, but none will regret having it called to their
remembrance--"placuit semel--decies repetita placebit"--space, however,
will oblige me somewhat to curtail