with all classes of persons than ferns; nor is this to be wondered at when we consider both their intrinsic beauty, and their association with all that is wild and romantic in scenery, where mountain and valley, rocks and shaded fountains, combine their fascinating influence upon the imagination. Their embellishment of rugged and wild mountain scenery has been embalmed in the poetry of Scott. He sometimes prefers the Caledonian name of brake or bracken to that of fern. In picturing to the eye the sudden rise and disappearance of the soldiers of Roderick Dhu, when he gave the signal" whistle shrill, and was answered from the hill," we see heath, broom, and bracken forming the ambuscade.

8.

"Instant, through copse and heath, arose
Bonnets, and spears, and bended bows;
On right, on left, above, below,

Sprung up, at once, the lurking foe;
From shingles gray their lances start,
The bracken bush sends forth the dart,
.And every tuft of broom gives life

To plaided warrior armed for strife,
As if the yawning hill to heaven
A subterranean host had given."

9. And when, after a suitable pause, the chieftain

"Waved his hand,

Down sunk the disappearing band;

Each warrior vanished where he stood,
In broom or bracken, heath or wood;
It seemed as if their mother earth

Had swallowed up her warlike birth.
The wind's last breath had tossed in air
Pennon, and plaid, and plumage fair-

The next but swept a lone hill-side,

Where heath and fern were waving wide;

The sun's last glance was glinted3 back

From spear and glaive, from targe5 and jack,6
The next, all unreflected, shone

On bracken green and cold gray stone."

10. There is an interesting family of plants, called Liverworts, belonging to the same class as the ferns, and in many respects resembling the mosses. Their leafy expansions are soft and green; they are usually found growing on moist surfaces, often where there is little or no soil, and are very common in the chinks between paving-stones in unfrequented places, and on the surface of the earth contained in gardenpots, as also, upon walls which from any cause are kept constantly damp. Besides the seeds which grow on the leaf, as in ferns, some of the liverworts have little stalks growing from them, and bearing on their summit flower-like appendages which contain minute bodies that seem to have the power of spontaneously detaching themselves from their birthplace. When thrown into the water they move about rapidly like animalculæ.

11. But mosses are perhaps the most interesting of this first division of the Cryptogamia; and to them we proceed in the next Lesson.

not|4 GLAIVE, a broadsword.

5 TARGE, a tär'-get on shield.
6 JACK, a coat of mail.

LESSON XXIII.—THE MOSSES. (ACROGENS.)

[NOTE. The following lines apply, perhaps, more appropriately to the Lichens than to the Mosses. (See Lesson XXV.) But lichens are in common language called mosses.] THE lovely moss! on the lowly cot

1.

3.

It lies like an emerald crown,

And the summer shower pierceth it not,
As it comes rushing down;

And I love its freshened brilliancy,
When the last rain hath pattered,

And the sparkling drops on its surface lie,
Like stars from the pure sky scattered.
And I love, I love to see it much,

When on the ruin gray,

That crumbles with Time's heavy touch,
It spreads its mantle gay;

While the cold ivy only gives,

As it shivereth, thoughts of fear,
The closely clinging moss still lives,

Like a friend, forever near.

But oh! I love the bright moss most

When I see it thickly spread

On the sculptured stone, that fain would boast

Of its forgotten dead.

For I think if that lowly thing can efface

The fame that earth hath given,

Who is there that would ever chase

Glory, save that of Heaven?-Miss M. A. BROWNE

4. Mosses are interesting little evergreens, with distinct leaves, and frequently a distinct stem. They do not, like ferns, bear their fructification upon the leaves, but in a little case or urn that is borne on a long distinct stalk. The pulpy matter that is contained in this case becomes dry in ripening, and when arrived at maturity it flies off in the form of an extremely subtile powder, which serves for the propagation of the plant.

5. Mosses are fond of moisture, shade, and retirement; enof livening the dark recesses of solitude by the vivid green their diminutive foliage; and it is with "mossy fountains,' especially, that we have been taught to associate ideas of "Cool refreshment," and the quiet of nature in repose.

While we view,

Amid the noontide walk, a limpid rill

Gush through the trickling herbage, to the thirst
Of summer yielding the delicious draught

Of cool refreshment, o'er the mossy bank

Shines not the surface clearer? and the waves

With sweeter music murmur as they flow?-AKENSIDE.

6. Mosses are found in the hottest as well as the coldest climates, growing alike amid torrid sands and arctic snows; and when a coral island springs up above the crested wave, the green moss first crowns its barren summit, and prepares the living rock for the growth of higher forms of vegetation. It was by the contemplation of a delicate moss plant that the heart of Mungo Park, the African traveler, was revived, when the difficulties by which he was surrounded had almost extinguished hope within him. The passage has been often quoted, but, it may be hoped, never without its use, and it does not seem superfluous to introduce it here.

7. This enterprising traveler, during one of his journeys into the interior of Africa, was cruelly stripped and robbed of all that he possessed by banditti. "In this forlorn and almost helpless condition," he says, "when the robbers had left me, I sat for some time looking around me with amazement and terror. Whichever way I turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I found myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season-naked and alone-surrounded by savage animals, and by men still more savage. I was five hundred miles from any European settlement. All these circumstances crowded at once upon my recollection, and I confess that my spirits began to fail me. I considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative but to lie down and perish.

8. "The influence of religion, however, aided and supported me. I reflected that no human prudence or foresight could possibly have averted my present sufferings. I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting eye of that Providence who has condescended to call himself the stranger's friend. At this moment, painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss irresistibly caught my eye; and though the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and fruit without admiration. Can that Being (thought I) who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and suffering of creatures formed after his own image? Surely not. Reflections like these would not allow me to despair. I started up, and, disregarding both hunger and fatigue, traveled forward, assured that relief was at hand; and I was not disappointed."

1

9. A distinguished French writer, Rousseau, was particularly fond of mosses. He would often say that they gave an air of youth and freshness to our fields, adorning nature when flowers had vanished. The moss is a useful plant also. The Laplanders protect their humble dwellings with moss, and line the cradles of their little ones with it. May not this explain why a tuft of moss is an emblem of maternal love? Little birds also select the delicate moss for their nests, and squirrels convey it to their winter abodes.

10.

11. And

"Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush,
That overhangs a molehill large and round,
I heard, from morn to morn, a merry thrush
Sing hymns to sunrise, and I drank the sound
With joy; and, often an intruding guest,
I watched her secret toils from day to day-
How true she warped the moss to form a nest,
And modeled it within with wood and clay."

now, having described the ferns and the mosses, and illustrated them with drawings, we will conclude the first division of the Flowerless Plants with the following beautiful lines by Eliza Cook, which show very forcibly the wisdom of God in creating different species of plants, as well as in permitting the various degrees of what men call prosperity to different classes in society.

LESSON XXIV.—THE FERN AND THE MOSS.

1. THERE was a fern on the mountain, and moss on the moor;
And the ferns were the rich, and the mosses the poor.
And the glad breeze blew gayly; from Heaven it came,
And the fragrance it shed over each was the same;
And the warm sun shone brightly, and gilded the fern,
And smiled on the lowly-born moss in its turn;
And the cool dews of night on the mountain fern fell,
And they glistened upon the green mosses as well.
And the fern loved the mountain, the moss loved the moor,
For the ferns were the rich, and the mosses the poor.
2. But the keen blast blew bleakly, the sun waxed high,
And the ferns they were broken, and withered, and dry;
And the moss on the moorland grew faded and pale,
And the fern and the moss shrank alike from the gale.
So the fern on the mountain, the moss on the moor,
Were withered and black where they flourished before.
3. Then the fern and the moss they grew wiser in grief,
And each turned to the other for rest and relief;
And they planned that wherever the fern-roots should grow,
There surely the moss should be sparkling below.

4. And the keen blasts blew bleakly, the sun waxed fierce;
But no wind and no sun to their cool roots could pierce;

For the fern threw her shadow the green moss upon,
Where the dew ever sparkled undried by the sun;
When the graceful fern trembled before the keen blast,
The moss guarded her roots till the storm-wind had passed;
So no longer the wind parched the roots of the one,
And the other was safe from the rays of the sun.

5. And thus, and forever, where'er the ferns grow,
There surely the mosses lie sparkling below;

And thus they both flourish, where naught grew before,
And they both deck the woodland, and mountain, and moor.

ELIZA COOK.

1. Cenomy'ce sporas'sa, Ventricose lichen, xxi. 8, woods, 2 in. 2. Cenomy'ce delica'ta, Delicate lichen, mealy patch, xxi. 8, on rotten rails, in. (a. enlarged). 3. Cenomy'ce rangiferi'na, Reindeer lichen, xxi. 8, woods, 2 in. 4. Licide'a lu'rida, Lurid lichen, xxi. 8, rocky highlands, 3 in. (b. enlarged). 5. Cali'cium chrysoceph'alum, Yellow-head lichen, xxi. 8, lem. col., 3 in. (c. enlarged). 6. Lecano'ra ocula'ta, Mottled lichen, xxl. 8, rocks and earth, w., 2 in, (d. enlarged). 7. Cali'cium capitella'tum, Sulphur lichen, xxl. 8, gr. and y.,in., sandy soil (e. enlarged). 8. Rocel'la tincto'ria, Dyer's lichen (yields a fine purple color), xxl. 8, y. and br., It in. 9. Cetra'ria Islan'dica, Iceland moss (used in medicine), xxi. 8, ol. br., 2 in.

1. Ar the head of the second division of the cryptogamia are the Lichens,1 a race of tiny2 plants, very common, and yet but little known to the world, though possessed of a beauty by no means inferior to that of gorgeous flowers or lofty trees. Man is but too apt to admire the boundless wealth and beauty