Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/On the Study of the Mosses

by James Eustace Bagnall

On the Study of the Mosses.

By James E. Bagnall.

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Meek creatures! the first mercy of the earth, visiting with hushed softness its dintless rocks; creatures full of pity, covering with strange and tender honour the scarred disgrace of ruin—laying quiet finger on the trembling stones, to teach them rest. No words, that I know of, will say what these mosses are, None are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich enough. How is one to tell of the rounded bosses of furred and beaming green,—the starred divisions of rubied bloom, fine-filmed, as if the rock spirits could spin porphyry as we do glass,—the traceries of intricate silver, and fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, burnished through every fibre into fitful brightness and glossy traverses of silken change, yet all subdued and pensive, and framed for simplest sweetest offices of grace? They will not be gathered, like the flowers, for chaplet or love-token; but of these the wild bird will make its nest, and the weaned child his pillow.

And, as the earth’s first mercy, so they are its last gift to we: when all other service is vain, from plant and tree, the soft mosses and gray lichen take up their watch by the head-stone. The woods, the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses, have done their parts for a time; but these do service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the bride's chamber, corn for the granary, moss for the grave.

Ruskin's "Modern Painters,"—Vol, V., pp. 102-3.

A walk through green fields, country lanes, or woods, is rendered more enjoyable, and I believe more conducive to healthy exercise, if we have some special study to call us there, than such a walk would be if indulged in for the mere sake of what is termed a constitutional. For it is well to have something that will for a time enable us to forget the every day cares of a busy life, and nothing is so likely to do this as some pursuit that not only engrosses the attention but also gladdens the eye, that calls forth healthy thought, educates the observing faculties, and stimulates us to take a certain amount of invigorating exercise. To any person with ordinary enthusiasm, interest, and industry, the study of the mosses will yield all this and more.

Too frequently these plants are neglected by even professed botanists. The investigation of them is considered to be too difficult, or too tedious, and often too expensive. That there are difficulties connected with the study all must admit, but none that a little patience and industry will not surmount; the tedium of the study would evaporate after the first few hours' examination of these beautiful organisms, and the expense after the first outlay need not he more than a little extra wear and tear of one's shoe leather,

To say that the study of these plants is interesting would be trite, for everything in beautiful nature is interesting, but the "dim world of weeping mosses" is wondrously interesting; so varied in structure, in form, in mode of growth, in colour, covering the bosom of their mother earth with a green, velvety mantle when the cold winds of autumn and winter have robbed the trees of their beautiful foliage, and the nipping frosts have chilled into death their lovely sisters, the flowering plants, clothing with beauty the wayside bank, clinging with a tender embrace to their high-born kinsman the forest tree, bedecking with a thousand fairy urns the old ruined wall, covering with beautifully mingled masses of feathery Hypnum, tufted Bryum, or hoary Tortula, of every shade of green, the rotting thatch of the ruined cottage, filling the treacherous bog with pale green Sphagnum, er beautiful tussocks of noble looking Polytrichum, flourishing amid the unpleasant odours of the poison breathing marsh, and climbing slowly, but surely, from the lowest valley to the snow line of the great mountain!

And were we to follow them in their daring scramble, and note them well, we should see that the mosses are not only countless in numbers, but multitudinous in varieties and species; the moss flora of our own islands alone numbering about 140 genera and nearly 600 species, besides varieties without end. A superficial observer would probably be astonished if he were to have pointed out to him the varied species to be found upon a few square feet of a bank "with bright green mosses clad," because to him a moss is a moss and nothing more; and yet in such a limited area twenty or more species may often be found; and many a district that at first sight seems able to yield but a poor moss flora may by a little diligence be proved to be quite prolific. A limited district of some 3,500 acres has yielded the writer nearly 130 species of these plants, all of them beautiful and some of them very rare.

Then it must be remembered that mosses are easily preserved, usually retain their special characters even when dried, may be prepared for the herbaria, and packed in comparatively small compass, and may be examined at any time: for, however shrivelled they may have become by long keeping, a few minutes' soaking in tepid water will restore them to most of their former beauty, their lovely leaves again expand, the minute cells of which they are built are again filled with fluids, and with the aid of the microscope all their details may be made out as readily as though they had been gathered but an hour ago, so that for real and minute study this may truly be called a fireside one.

For the sake of those who would wish to commence the study, but lack the knowledge how to begin, when and where to seek their plants, and how to distinguish them when found, these hints have been written, and I shall endeavour, as clearly as I can, to supply a few elementary lessons in moss collecting, &c.

Before beginning to collect certain aids are required: these are few and simple. First, a bag or satchel of some kind for stowing away specimens as they are gathered. One of the canvas bags with a strap to sling over the shoulder, such as are now offered from a shilling upwards, will be serviceable and sufficient. Some pieces of good strong newspaper six to nine inches square will be required to wrap up each specimen separately as gathered. These papers should be numbered previous to starting out, using ink rather than pencil, for the mosses will often he wet and pencil marks are then easily obliterated. In order to keep the tufts of moss clean and distinct too many should not be put into one paper. When the paper is filled and folded the number of the package should be entered in the collector's note book, with remarks as to habitat, locality, and date. Such, for instance, as this:— No.1. Marly bank, Tythall Lane, near Solihull. Formation, Keuper Marl. Feb.&nbsp 9th, 1878." and such other particulars as it may be well to remember.

And here I may observe that at first it would be advisable to collect these mosses only which have their fruit fully matured, and then, when these have been carefully examined and their distinguishing characters mastered, barren specimens may be collected; for many of our rarest British mosses are more frequently found barren then fruiting, and they must not, of course, be neglected. As soon as home is reached each of the packages should be opened, and if time serves roughly examined. If not, they should be placed in the opened papers on the floor of a room where they will be undisturbed, and allowed to get thoroughly dry. It will be advisable at the same time to place a slip of paper with each package containing a copy of the notes from note book, When the specimens are dry they may be again wrapped up and put by for an indefinite time for future examination. If the mosses are allowed to dry in the unopened papers just as they are gathered they will be nearly certain to become mildewed, and will be very unsightly and useless, and thus the trouble of collecting will have been taken in vain,

All these details may seem to make the preliminary work very tedious to the beginner, but he will soon get over any irksomeness he may at first feel, and he will he rewarded by his specimens being saved in good condition.

A pocket lens will be required for the examination of the plants in the field, one having a power of about ten diameters, i.e., about one inch focal length, will be found serviceable, and if with two powers, i.e., one inch and half-inch, still more so. Those lenses, fitted in horn cases, may be obtained from any of our local opticians at from 1s. upward, the price varying according to the finish of the article. If the School Microscope mentioned below is obtained, one or more of the lenses supplied with it may be made to do service in the field; but, if so used, should always be carried in a small chamois leather bag to protect from scratches.

It is advisable to acquire the habit of constantly using a lens, making out by its aid all the details possible, such as the position of the leaves on the stem, general characters, &c., noticing whether they are straight, curved, falcate, and so on, and their direction when dry. This latter character is often a ready guide to nearly allied species. For instance, two mosses common on wall tops, Bryum capillare and B. caspiticium, differ materially in appearance when dry, the former having the leaves remarkably twisted, the latter having them straight and imbricated. Many other like cases might be cited.

A good text book will, of course, be indispensable. There are several to select from, published at various prices. For instance, Stark's "British Mosses," having twenty coloured plates, is offered for 5s.; but this is not to my thinking a satisfactory book, the descriptions being too vague to be useful; still, many of the more frequent mosses may be made out from it. Berkeley's "Handbook of British Mosses," with twenty-four coloured plates, costs 21s. new, but may frequently be obtained second-hand for about 11s. The great fault of this work is that the nomenclature is not in all cases that most generally adopted, and the author gives no synonyms. This, I think, is a serious fault, as it leaves one in uncertainty as to the name adopted by other authors. Of cheap books the one I prefer is C. P. Hobkirk's "Synopsis of the British Mosses," which costs 7s. 6d. The only fault is the absence of plates. It is so handy in size that it may be carried in the pocket without inconvenience, contains excellent descriptions of all our British mosses, and the classification adopted in it is excellent. But the best text book is Wilson’s "Bryologia Britannica." It contains excellent illustrations of all the mosses described in the volume, giving figures of many of the minute details. The descriptions are admirable, being these of one of the best bryologists our country has produced. Any student who makes good use of this work will find that most of the difficulties surrounding this study will be rapidly overcome. This is somewhat expensive book, costing 42s. with the plates uncoloured, or 84s. with the plates coloured. The uncoloured edition is to my thinking quite as useful as the more expensive one. I should certainly advise the student to got this volume as his text book.

Of course a microscope will be almost, if not quite, indispensable. These instruments, as everyone knows, are very varied in price, a first-class microscope being an expensive luxury, though there are in the market excellent instruments at most moderate prices. But a great amount of good work may be done with a cheap microscope—in fact, a great deal of the best work that has been done for science has been done with comparatively inexpensive instruments.

The most useful cheap instrument I know is Field's School Microscope, a very compact little instrument having three simple lenses which, separate or combined, give a magnifying power of from five to forty diameters. This, with the simple lenses, live box, needle, and other appliances, costs 10s. 6d.; a compound body may be added for 2s. 6d. extra. This will give powers of from twenty to eighty diameters. It is well to have this compound body at first, us the cabinet is then made of sufficient size to hold the compound body and all the other apparatus. For an additional 2s. 6d. a Wollaston doublet may be added; and, as this lens is a combination of plane-convex lenses placed in such a manner and of such a focus as to reduce chromatic and spherical aberrations, for 15s. 6d. it is possible to possess a microscope nearly achromatic, giving a power of 120 diameters, which is sufficient for almost all the work which the young botanist will have to do. All my own earliest work in mosses was done with this instrument, and I believe I learned more by its aid than I have over done with the more expensive instruments I have since used. As a simple microscope it will always be useful for dissecting and mounting purposes, and I can say with confidence that the student who has acquired all the knowledge of structure that this cheap little instrument will place within his reach will have gained such an insight into the moss world as will enable him to determine with a little patience the most difficult of mosses.

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