MOSSSES, (Encycl.) Mosses, by the inconsiderate mind, are generally deemed an useless or insignificant part of the creation. That they are not, is evident from hence; that he who made them has made no-
thing in vain, but on the contrary has pronounced all his works to be very good. Many of their uses we know; that they have many more which we know not, is unquestionable, since there is probably no one thing in the universe of which we dare to assert that we know all their uses. Thus much we are certain of with respect to mosses, that as they flourish most in winter, and at that time cover the ground with a beautiful green carpet, in many places which would be otherwise naked, and when little verdure is elsewhere to be seen; so at the same time they shelter and preserve the seeds, roots, gems, and embryo plants of many vegetables, which would otherwise perish; they furnish materials for birds to build their nests with; they afford a warm winter's retreat for some quadrupeds, such as bears, dormice, and the like, and for numberless insects, which are the food of birds and fishes, and these again the food or delight of men. Many of them grow on rocks and barren places, and rotting away afford the first principles of vegetation to other plants, which could never else have taken root there. Others grow in bogs and marshes, and, by continual increase and decay, fill up and convert them either into fertile pastures, or into peat-bogs the source of inexhaustible fuel to the polar regions.—They are applicable also to many domestic purposes: the lycopodiums are some of them used in dyeing of yarn, and in medicine; the sphagnum and polytrichum furnish convenient beds for the Laplanders; the hypnum are used in tiling of houses, stopping crevices in walls, packing up of brittle wares and the roots of plants for distant conveyance.—To which may be added, that all in general contribute entertainment and agreeable instruction to the contemplative mind of the naturalist, at a season when few other plants offer themselves to his view.