_Collecting._--The bryologist has one advantage over the phænogamous botanist, for it is not imperative that mosses should be laid out and pressed immediately; and hence less care is required in collecting them, than is bestowed on flowering plants; the necessary apparatus is confined to a pocket-knife, to remove specimens from stones or trees, a stock of stout waste paper, and a vasculum, or, better still, a strong bag, in which to carry the packets. When collecting the plants, it is well to remove any superfluous earth or stones, or to squeeze out the water from those found in bogs; and then each is to be wrapped separately in paper, and the locality marked outside; or the more minute species may, for greater safety, be placed in chip boxes. On reaching home, if we do not prepare the specimens at once, we must not leave the parcels packed together in their receptacle, or mould will soon attack them and spoil the whole; but we must spread them out on the floor until quite dry, and then reserve them to a convenient opportunity to lay out; as in the dry state they may be kept for years unchanged. It often happens that our line of study is developed by some fortuitous circumstance. A neglected flowerpot in the corner of the garden attracts attention by its verdant carpet of moss, or, peeping over the wall, we see the crevices between the bricks bristling with capsules of _Tortula muralis_, the red twisted peristome freshly brought to view by the falling away of the lid, and, taking a bit indoors to submit to the microscope, we are so captivated therewith that we then and there determine to become a bryologist. Nor is this all that a journey round the garden will disclose: the neglected paths yield other species not less worthy of examination, and old apple-trees are not unfrequently tenanted by mosses. Extending our walks to the commons, lanes, and woods, we may find on the ground and banks, in bogs and on the stumps and trunks of trees, a number of species greatly extending our list; while others again are only met with on the clay soil of stubble-fields, as various species of _Pottia_ and _Ephemerum_: appearing in October, their delicate texture is developed by the constant moisture of winter, and with it also they vanish, to appear no more until the succeeding season. Travelling yet farther away, we find that each locality we visit yields some novelty: old walls and rocks of sandstone or slate, limestone districts, and, above all, a mountainous country, are rich in species we seek in vain elsewhere. Here peat bogs, and rocks dripping with water, ever supplied by the atmosphere, or the tumbling streams everywhere met with, are the chosen homes of these little plants, and thither must the collector resort, if he would reap his richest harvest. Winter and spring in the lowlands, and a later period in the elevated districts, will be found most productive of fruiting plants.