Henry Doorly Zoo

БЂњItБЂ™s remarkable, isnБЂ™t it?БЂ«Fortey agreed. He thought for a moment. БЂњHeБЂ™s very thorough apparently.БЂ«The lift door opened to reveal a bricked-over opening. Fortey looked confounded. БЂњThatБЂ™s very strange,БЂ«he said. БЂњThat used to be Botany back there.БЂ«He punched a button for another floor, and we found our way at length to Botany by means of back staircases and discreet trespass through yet more departments where investigators toiled lovingly over once-living objects. And so it was that I was introduced to Len Ellis and the quiet world of bryophytes-mosses to the rest of us. When Emerson poetically noted that mosses favor the north sides of trees (БЂњThe moss upon the forest bark, was pole-star when the night was darkБЂ«) he really meant lichens, for in the nineteenth century mosses and lichens werenБЂ™t distinguished. True mosses arenБЂ™t actually fussy about where they grow, so they are no good as natural compasses. In fact, mosses arenБЂ™t actually much good for anything. БЂњPerhaps no great group of plants has so few uses, commercial or economic, as the mosses,БЂ«wrote Henry S ...»