Now that the hedges are no longer green, and the trees stand black and
bare on the landscape, is the time to seek for endless variety and
beauty waiting to be admired in its turn. What miniature fairy glens
and grottoes are distributed over the hedge banks of our country
lanes! Mosses, delicate and beautiful, may be found in the interstices
of any old wall, or at the foot of almost any tree or shrub. In the
winter time mosses and lichens are found in fruit, and are beautiful
objects. A pocket microscope lens is essential for their proper
observation; and though the delicate carmine cups of the species known
as the cup moss, and the familiar gray and yellow mosaic appearance we
see on twigs and branches on our way, are easily recognized, the study
of this form of winter vegetation is an inexhaustible one, and is an
occupation for a lifetime, if earnestly pursued. We do not however,
suggest that every one who endeavors to recognize the different
species of moss, lichens, or fungi should necessarily do so through
the medium of the microscope; but it will greatly add to the pleasure
of making a collection out of doors if there be a good microscope at
home, so that when the contents of the basket be turned out, after the
winter's walk, there should be interest even in the fragments left,
after a little pile of varied bits has been constructed, rivalling the
choicest summer bouquet in beauty of form and color. We have seen such
a collection formed into a beautiful object by raising a little mound
of rough bits of bark in a plate or saucer, and placing on it
varieties of fungus of every shade of red, brown, yellow, and gray.
They seem to spring forth from a bed of sphagnum or bog moss of
brightest emerald green; while a clump of the screw wall moss in
fruit, with its curious little box-like capsules, supports a gray or
yellow lichen, which has been gently removed from some old wall or
tree. A bit of stick or a twig, incrusted with a bright orange-colored
lichen, supports a trailing branch of delicate green ivy, the most
beautiful and adaptable of all winter foliage. Over this little
arrangement is placed a bell glass, to preserve it from dust and the
effect of a dry atmosphere; and we know how pleasing to the eye is its
varied beauty of form and color, lasting thus, a constant source of
pleasure, for many a day without renewal.--_Chambers' Journal_.
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