MOSS, n. [L. muscus.] The mosses are one of the seven families or classes into which all vegetables are divided by Linne in the Philosophia Botanica. In Ray's method, the mosses form the third class, and in Tournefort's, they constitute a single genus. In the sexual system, they are the second order of the class cryptogamia, which contains all the plants in which the parts of the flower and fruit are wanting or not conspicuous.

1. The mosses are one of the families or classes into which all vegetables are divided by Linnæus in the Philosophia Botanica. In Ray's method, the mosses form the third class and in Tournefort's, they constitute a single genus. In the sexual system, they are the second order of the class Cryptogamia, which contains all the plants in which the parts of the flower and fruit are wanting or not conspicuous. Milne. The mosses, musci, form a natural order of small plants with leafy stems and narrow simple leaves. Their flower are generally monecian or diecian, and their seeds are contained in a capsule covered with a calyptra or hood. Ed. Encyc. The term moss is also applied to many other small plants particularly lichens, species of which are called tree-moss, rock-moss, coral-moss, &c. The fir-moss and club-moss, are of the genus Lycopodium.
2. [Sw. måse.] A bog; a place where peat is found.

To cover with moss by natural growth. An oak whose boughs were mossed with age. Shak.

1. A cryptogamous plant of a cellular structure, with distinct stem and simple leaves. The fruit is a small capsule usually opening by an apical lid, and so discharging the spores. There are many species, collectively termed Musci, growing on the earth, on rocks, and trunks of trees, etc., and a few in running water.
   
   

   * The term moss is also popularly applied to many other small cryptogamic plants, particularly lichens, species of which are called tree moss, rock moss, coral moss, etc. Fir moss and club moss are of the genus Lycopodium. See Club moss, under Club, and Lycopodium.

2. To cover or overgrow with moss.
   
   

   An oak whose boughs were mossed with age. Shak.

3. A bog; a morass; a place containing peat; as, the mosses of the Scottish border.
   
   

   * Moss is used with participles in the composition of words which need no special explanation; as, moss-capped, moss-clad, moss-covered, moss-grown, etc.

   Black moss. See under Black, and Tillandsia. -- Bog moss. See Sphagnum. -- Feather moss, any moss branched in a feathery manner, esp. several species of the genus Hypnum. -- Florida moss, Long moss, or Spanish moss. See Tillandsia. -- Iceland moss, a lichen. See Iceland Moss. -- Irish moss, a seaweed. See Carrageen. -- Moss agate (Min.), a variety of agate, containing brown, black, or green mosslike or dendritic markings, due in part to oxide of manganese. Called also Mocha stone. - - Moss animal (Zoöl.), a bryozoan. -- Moss berry (Bot.), the small cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccus). -- Moss campion (Bot.), a kind of mosslike catchfly (Silene acaulis), with mostly purplish flowers, found on the highest mountains of Europe and America, and within the Arctic circle. -- Moss land, land produced accumulation of aquatic plants, forming peat bogs of more or less consistency, as the water is grained off or retained in its pores. -- Moss pink (Bot.), a plant of the genus Phlox (P. subulata), growing in patches on dry rocky hills in the Middle United States, and often cultivated for its handsome flowers. Gray. -- Moss rose (Bot.), a variety of rose having a mosslike growth on the stalk and calyx. It is said to be derived from the Provence rose. -- Moss rush (Bot.), a rush of the genus Juncus (J. squarrosus). -- Scale moss. See Hepatica.