Flowerless plants; ferns, mushrooms, mosses, lichens, and seaweeds

MOSSES
and around hot springs in different parts of the world,
they flourish and continue green under a heat that is
fatal to all other vegetation except lichens.
They love best the moist places, but do not refuse
to grow where the soil is dry. Tufts of them may be
seen here and there on the sandy desert.
We find them on the mountain tops amid howling
winds and driving storms, as well as in the calm and
silent woods where scarcely a breath of wind can stir
their leaves.
There is, in fact, no spot on earth so dry or wet, so
cold or hot, so stormy or so quiet, that these tiny flow-
erless plants do not find a dwelling place. They are,
however, most abundant in the temperate zone. Here,
too, they have their favorite haunts. At the foot of the
mountains, in rocky dells, with streamlets murmuring
through them, and the trees making a dim twilight, they
form their soft, green carpets.
In mosses, as elsewhere in nature, uses and beauties
mingle together. To them is given the task of preparing
the way for higher forms of plant life. Before we
can have the wheat for our daily bread, or grass for our
cattle, or cotton and linen for cloth, mosses and lichens
prepare the soil for these useful plants.
Mosses protect the roots of trees and plants from
heat and cold. They make a home for insects. In
mountainous regions the thick mats of moss help to
soak up the rain and prevent floods from sudden storms.
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