Scientific Illustration

the-staxx:

‘Before Dr Dillenius gave me a hint of it, I took no particular notice of mosses, but looked upon them as a cow looks at a pair of new barn doors.’

The celebrated American botanist John Bartram wrote this in the eighteenth century; to-day, though much has been written about mosses since Dr John James Dillenius published his bulky Historia Muscorum in 1741, most people, even many professed botanists, would probably admit that they had taken ‘no particular notice’ of mosses.  Yet mosses can be studied anywhere and at any time and they are among the most beautiful of plants, though much of their beauty can be seen only with the help of microscope or hand-lens.  According to some, ‘the hyssop that springeth out of the wall’ which King Solomon studied was a moss.