Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1861 edition. Excerpt: ... not changing colour when dry. The Triguetrum presents a widely different appearance, indicating that it dwells low upon the ground. The branches are unequal; the leaves broad, triangular, not keeled, tender, pellucid, pointed, pale green when growing; involucrum ridged, oblong, composed of reflected scales, sometimes two or three together; fruit-stalks seldom more than an inch high; capsules upright, thin, when ripe thicker, leaning, and crooked. The whole plant spreads to a foot in length, reddish, elastic, rising upwards, often growing upright, although the branches frequently bend towards the ground, where their extremities strike and take root. In this respect the humble Feather-moss resembles its giant relative (the Ficus Indica of Hindostan and Cochin China), of which the lateral branches, sending down shoots which take root in the earth, compose a grove that often covers a wide area. We use the term relative--though one grows low, and may be trodden upon by every passer-by, and the other rises to a commanding height--because all vegetables are related, individuals of one great family; and what the Banian is to those who walk beneath its branches, whether Hindoo, Chinese, or European, so is the unassuming Feather-moss to insects that find a home and storehouse within its precincts. And if it be allowable to apply lines descriptive of that vast and peculiar Banian to itslowly brother, we may say with equal truth--"Many a long depending shoot, Seeking to strike its root, Straight, like a plummet, grows toward the ground; Some on the lower boughs which cross their way, Fixing their hearded fibres round and round, "With many a ring and wild contortion wound; Some to the passing wind, at times with sway Of gentle motion...