Moss is useful to the gardener for packing round the roots of plants; and even some bulbous roots have been cultivated in it; but when it infests the trunks of trees, or our lawns, it is one of the gardener's pests.

"Moss only attacks lawns, the soil of which is unable to support a greensward of grass. When soil is exhausted, grasses begin to die off, and their place is taken by moss. The obvious mode, then, of proceeding, is to give the lawn a good top-dressing in winter, either of malt-dust, or nitrate of soda, or soot, or any other manure containing an ' abundance of alkali. The gardener finds the growth of moss arrested by frequent raking in wet weather, or by the application of pounded oyster-shells; but these are mere palliatives, and not remedies. Make your grass healthy, and it will soon smother the moss." - Gard. Chron.

The most effectual, most salutary, and least disagreeable remedy for moss on trees is of trivial expense, and which a gardener need but try upon one individual to insure its adoption. It is with a hand scrubbing brush, dipped in a strong brine of common salt, as often as necessary to insure each portion of the bark being moistened with it, to scrub the trunks and branches of his trees at least every second year. It most effectually destroys insects of all kinds, and moss; and the stimulating influence of the application, and the friction, are productive of the most beneficial effects. The expense is not so much as that of dressing the trunks with a solution of lime, which, however efficient in the destruction of moss, is not so in the removal of insects - is highly injurious to the trees, by filling up the respiratory pores of the epidermis, and is decidedly a promoter of canker. On gravel walks, a strong solution of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) has been found the most effectual destroyer of moss.