(fab. hift.), a daughter of Cælus and Terra. She married Jupiter, by whom she had the nine muses. The word mnemosyne signifies "memory;" and therefore the poets have rightly called Memory the mother of the muses, because it is to that mental endowment that mankind are indebted for their progress in science.

NIUM, marshmoss; a genus of the natural order of mosses, belonging to the cryptogamia class of plants. The anthera is operculate; the calyx smooth; the female capitulum naked and powdery, remote. There are 18 species, of which seven are natives of Britain; but none have any remarkable property except the two following. 1. The fontanum is an elegant moss, frequent in bogs, and on the borders of cold springs. It is from two to four inches high: the stalks are simple at the base, and covered with a rusty down; but higher up are red, and divided into several round, single, taper branches, which proceed nearly from the same point. The leaves are not more than 1/4th of an inch long, lanceolate and acute, of a whitish green colour; and so thinly set, that the red stalk appears between them. This moss, as it may be seen at a considerable distance, is a good mark to lead to the discovery of clear and cold springs. Linnaeus informs us, that the Laplanders are well acquainted with this sign. Mr Withering informs us, that wherever this moss grows, a spring of fresh water may be found without much digging. 2. The hygrometricum grows in woods, heaths, garden-walks, walls, old trees, decayed wood, and where coals or cinders have been laid. It is stemless, hath tips inversely egg-shaped, nodding, and bright yellow. If the fruit-stalk is moistened at the base with a little water or steam, the head makes three or four revolutions; if the head is moistened, it turns back again.