192 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS.
branched, and attached to the soil here and there by means
of tough pale-coloured wiry-looMng roots. The young
branches, which are very thickly clothed with leaves, grow
rather upwards at first, but soon all become prostrate, and
cross and interlace, forming a close matted tuft, whence
comes, in fact, the name it bears in Sweden—Matte-grass,
or mat-grass.
These stems are densely clothed with small, narrow lanceolate,
flattish leaves, which remain fresh through the
winter; they are smooth on the margin, or very slightly
toothed, and terminate in a long white filamentous point,
which gives the branches a somewhat hoary appearance.
The upright stalks supporting the spikes are bare of leaves,
bat have at intervals whorls of smaller bodies closely pressed
to the stalk, and tipped with shorter but broader membranous
chaffy processes ; they are also of a pale yellowish-
green colour.
The spikes of fructification are usually over an inch in
length, and are supported by a stalk of about twice their
own length. They are commonly produced in pairs, though
sometimes singly, and occasionally three together on the
same stalk. These spikes are cylindrical, and supported
on a short pedicel at the top of the common stalk ; they are
erect, white in front, but afterwards become more or less
curved. The spikes themselves consist of crowded triangular
ovate acuminate bracts of a pale yellow colour, and
having membranous serrated margins; in their axils the
spore-cases are produced, and these are subreniform,
two-valved, and filled with innumerable sulphur-coloured
powdery spores. The bracts become reflexed after the
spore-cases have shed their contents.
This is a common species, growing in moors and heathy
places in mountainous and hilly tracts of country throughout
England, Wales, and Scotland; and frequent, though
less abundant, in Ireland.
The leafy stems of this species are used for dyeing purposes,
as well as to fix colours in the stead of alum. The
long slender stems, used under the name of Stag’s-horn
Moss, are formed into pretty ornaments for the decoration
of the houses of rustics, and for filling their fire-grates
during summer. Linnæus relates that in Lapland the boys
have their heads decorated with chaplets formed of it,
which—the twin spikes projecting on all sides—have the
eflhct of calling up the idea of groups of fauns and satyrs.
Indeed, the long flexible stems are not badly adapted
for various decorative purposes.
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