Sphagnum moss

“ Many growers place a thin layer of fine dead sphagnum moss or of peat over this drainage material, and it certainly makes a useful addition. It is particularly useful in isolated pots or small boxes, as it holds enough moisture to prevent too rapid drying out, while all surplus water is quickly taken off by the coarse material beneath. Over the moss coarse siftings from the soil may be placed, while on top only the finest and best soil should be used. The smaller the seeds, the more care must be exercised in the sowing. ”

“ The leaf-cells (Fig. 302) of the Sphagnum or bog-moss exhibit a curious departure from the ordinary type; they are large, polygonal, and elongated, and contain spiral fibres loosely coiled in their interior. The young leaf does not differ from the older; both are evolved by a gradual process of differentiation.
Fig. 302.—Section of leaf of Sphagnum moss, showing large cells of spiral fibres and connecting apertures.
Mosses, like liverworts, possess both antheridia and pistillida, which are engaged in the process of fructification. ”

“ In the cold northern climates sphagnum moss is the most efficient peat producing plant, but in temperate and tropical climates the moss is replaced by the leaves, twigs, trunks, etc., of trees, bushes, and vines. ”

“ The earth must be kept moist, which is perhaps best done by a thick mulching of moss, the moss being also bound closely over the openings in the vessel, and all being kept damp by frequent syringings. Gardeners often dispense with the pot, using sphagnum moss and leaf-mould only when propagating india-rubber plants, perpetual carnations, dracaenas, &c. ”

“ In moist places, Sphagnum, or bog-moss, is very common, with many of the allied kinds of moss which compose peat in the alpine districts of Europe.
"The mountain-tops are very bare; affording only Mosses and Lichens, which cling with astonishing pertinacity to the rugged faces of the sharp peaks and piles of rock. ”

“ There is a certain kind of moss called sphagnum, which in large part makes up the peat-producing vegetation. Its roots die annually, but from the living top new roots are sent out each year. The workmen who dig peat understand that if this surface is destroyed the growth of the bed must stop ”

“ The greater part of the climbing bogs of the world are limited to the moist and cool regions of high latitudes, where species of moss belonging to the genus Sphagnum plentifully flourish. These plants can only grow where they are continuously supplied with a bath of water about their roots. They develop in lake bogs as far south as Mexico, but in the climbing form they are hardly traceable south of New England, and are nowhere extensively developed within the limits of the United States. ”

“ Once rooted they are fed by dusting the outside of the sphagnum with soluble fertilizer and watering it in. As a finishing touch, we threw strands of Spanish moss over the branches. The misty-gray moss thrives, and even flowers.
As further proof that many plants prefer freedom to being confined in pots, try planting just one creeper—an episcia, for example—in the center of a spot filled with suitable soil. See how soon it will garland the top with lush foliage, how freely it flowers. Many plants recommended for hanging baskets are really creepers and are better off when treated this way. ”

“ The fogs and more steady low temperature of insular situation, which now prevail, not only induce that chemical change in dead and dying vegetables which forms peat-moss, and preserves this moss from decay, but also being too cool for the vegetation of the gramineæ, &c. tend only to promote the general spread of sphagni and other moss-generating plants, which, again, are almost the only plants that can vegetate on acrid moss-flow, as they draw little or nothing from below, and are nourished directly by the moisture and other fluids of the atmosphere. ”

“ The general movement of subsidence being resumed, no. 8 is overflowed by waters which leave upon it nearly two feet of pure mud, no. 7. Then a retreat of the overflowing waters with exposure of the surface allows of successive growths and decadence of the plants constituting peat, of which the stratum no. 6, nearly four feet thick, exclusively consists. I need hardly remark that the species of Sphagnum, a genus which contributes most to bog-formations, are mosses that grow in air; they send their roots most abundantly in swampy, clayey soils. ”

“ A moist climate, such as that of Buitenzorg, favors the growth of epiphytic or perched plants—also of parasites. Seeds or spores, carried by the wind or birds, find lodgment in the forks of trees. With plenty of moisture in the air and a constant warm temperature they grow luxuriantly. Thus it happens that trees are covered with moss. Even the very leaves are often marked with delicate patterns of moss and lichen. Orchids and ferns in great number are perched upon the horizontal branches and the smooth trunks also serve for the lodgment of many plants as well. ”

“ Most important of all, practically every one of them has the ordinary green color of the better known plants, and as we shall see in the section devoted to “Leaves as Factories for the Making of Food,” that stamps them at once as plants, if other things did not.
Mosses are almost infinite in their habits, some growing on the dry rocks or trunks of trees, many growing in moist woods, some in the water, and immense quantities of certain kinds in bogs. The peculiar bog mosses, known as sphagnum, play an important part in forming peat and perhaps coal. ”

“ On the other hand, some are barely individually distinguishable to the naked eye. Fig. 527 represents a common little Moss, enlarged to about twelve times its natural size; and by its side is part of a leaf, much magnified, showing that it is composed of cellular tissue (parenchyma-cells) only. The leaves of Mosses are always simple, distinct, and sessile on the stem. The fructification is an urn-shaped spore-case, in this as in most cases raised on a slender stalk. The spore-case loosely bears on its summit a thin and pointed cap, like a candle-extinguisher, called a Calyptra. ”

“ The warmest chinking, outside of rags, which we do not have, is woods moss. That found growing on rocks and logs is best, for it does not dry out and shrink as much as marsh moss, and there is an abundance of this near at hand. We gather a few bags of this moss and with a piece of wood we drive it into the cracks all around the walls. We also keep a small quantity of this moss in the cabin, for no matter how firmly it is driven into the cracks it will shrink and become loose after awhile, and this must be tightened and more moss driven in. ”

“ As soon as it has started it grows and spreads very rapidly, drinking in water and air through all its cells and sending up the moss buds which swell and grow, giving out roots below and fine stems above, which soon become crowded with leaves, forming the velvety carpet we call moss. Meanwhile the soft threads below die away, giving up all their nourishment to the moss-stems, and this is why, when you take up the moss, you find each stem separate. But now comes the question, How does each stem live after the nourishing threads below have died? ”

“ Though moss thrives best in damp situations, and on northern aspects, it sometimes exists on open and eastern aspects, and, when the latter is the case, the moss is certainly due to poverty of soil, and in such cases, in addition to scraping the trees thoroughly, an application of top soil mixed with lime, or bonedust, should be applied to the land. ”

“ The beautiful green velvety carpeting of woods commonly known as Mosses (Figs. 118, 119) , growing most luxuriantly in damp, shady places, so useful from freely absorbing and retaining moisture, to be given out in time of drought, is made up of small delicate plants, each individual consisting of a stem and leaves, exhibiting under a low magnifying power a great variety and beauty of form. While Mosses, in the arrangement of their stem and leaves, differ greatly from the Jungermanniae, one group of them, the Hypoterygiae (Fig. 117) furnish perfectly the transition ”

“ That they may bind the moss in leafy nets. ”

“ This well-developed vegetative reproduction explains why so many Mosses grow gregariously. In certain Marchantiaceæ special cupules, in which gemmæ are developed, are found on the surface of the thallus (Fig. 197 A, s-s) . Again, protonema may also arise from the leaves, and thus the leaves may act as reproductive bodies. Certain Mosses nearly always reproduce vegetatively, and in these species the oospheres are seldom fertilised.
Fig. 187.—Marchantia polymorpha: a mature antheridium.
Fig. 188.—Spermatozoids.
The first generation bears the SEXUAL ORGANS ”

“ The trees bathed their great heads in the waves of the morning, while their roots were planted deep in gloom; save where on the borders the sunshine broke against their stems, or swept in long streams through their avenues, washing with brighter hue all the leaves over which it flowed; revealing the rich brown of the decayed leaves and fallen pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the long grasses and tiny forests of moss that covered the channel over which it passed in motionless rivers of light. ”

“ And every little spray of leaves that tossed airily in the pleasant breeze, every slender branch swaying gently in the wind, every young sapling pushing its childish head panting for light through the mass of greenery and quivering with golden sunbeams, every trunk of aged tree gray with moss and lichens, every tuft of flowers, seemed thrilled and vivified by some wonderful knowledge which it held secret, some consciousness of boundless, inexhaustible existence, some music of infinite unexplored thought concealing treasures of unlimited action. ”

“ And the larch has hung all his tassels forth,
The fisher is out on the sunny sea,
And the rein-deer bounds through the pasture free,
And the pine has a fringe of softer green,
And the moss looks bright where my step has been. ”

“ This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. ”

“ Beautiful it is to see and understand that no worth, or known or unknown, can die even on this earth. The work an unknown good man has done is like a hidden vein of water flowing underground, secretly making the ground green. ”

“ All green was vanish’d, save of pine and yew, 430 That still display’d their melancholy hue; Save the green holly with its berries red, And the green moss that o’er the gravel spread. ”

“ We shall sleep on this moss for many nights, till the beasts of the forest come to tear our body. We have no bed now, save the moss, and no future, save the beasts. ”

“ O'er yon bare knoll the pointed cedar shadows
Drowse on the crisp, gray moss; ”

“ Our walks were not carried very far from the ship before we discovered that other animals had begun, like ourselves, to take advantage of the returning daylight. Even while the darkness was at its greatest, men carrying lanterns to and from the water-berg or the shore occasionally noticed the little lines of curved scratches left by lemming. What the little creatures could have been doing out on the floes we could not understand; their tracks usually led into deep cracks and fissures of the ice. ”

“ There must be no delay in taking off our sealskins; they are already moist with condensation, and a cold steam streams from them to the floor. Little lumps of ice on the eyelashes and brows soon melt, but a solid mass cementing beard and moustache together resists even warm water for a time. Hair about the mouth is a nuisance in the Arctic regions, and everyone keeps close cropped. ”

“ The cook who wishes to display her skill in [92] poaching, must endeavor to procure eggs that have been laid a couple of days; those that are new laid are so milky, that, take all the care you can, your cooking of them will seldom procure you the praise of being a prime poacher. You must have fresh eggs, or it is equally impossible. The beauty of a poached egg is for the yolk to be seen blushing through the white, which should only be just sufficiently hardened to form a transparent veil for the egg. Have some boiling water in a teakettle ”

“ They must instantly start again, and by hard marching make up for the loss. They were soon under way, and all night toiled on over one floe after another, through pools and lanes of water, across spaces of broken rubble, and pasty bottomless sloughs of neither ice nor water. For fourteen hours they held out, then the men could do no more, rest and food were absolute necessities, but, on camping, they found to their dismay that the drift had been faster than their march, and they were four miles further off than when they started. ”

“ Frozen sea water, in spite of theory, remains salt, but the upper strata of the floebergs are pure snow condensed into ice. Then there are some stores to be drawn on the strong working sledge from Markham Hall; and the blacksmith and his assistants have a number of shovels to repair, for, strong as they are, they wont stand levering out blocks for snow-houses. At one o’clock the men go to their dinner, and before ours there is yet an hour and a quarter. We cannot stay on board, for the wardroom is occupied by an energetic party rehearsing for theatricals. ”