Excerpt from The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Vol. 14 of 18: Musci-Organ This noblest use of scientific inquiry in general might be attained then, in the study of mosses, from the consi deration of their structure alone; even although we were unable to assign any purposes which they serve in the economy of nature, or any advantage derived by man or by the lower animals, from mosses in general, or from any particular member of the family. But purposes of utility subserved by mosses in every one of these points of view, have not escaped observation; and it is our pur pose now to mention some of them, as a not unsuitable introduction to the details which are afterwards to be given, in regard to structure and arrangement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.