Mosses
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Mosses. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a class of small flowerless plants, important in the economy of nature, and of great interest in their life history. They are found in all climates, but are most abundant in damp places. They are included with the liverworts. In mountain regions, the thick felts of moss and deep beds of peat soak up the rain, and so prevent floods from sudden storms, and in dry weather supply the streams through weeks of drought. The life of a moss-plant seems to be endless. In some species cushions of marvelous regularity are formed; it enables individual plants to stand erect, and is of great importance in the process of fertilization. The capsules of many mosses are small sacs at the ends of their These contain the hair-like stalks. spores, from each of which when sown there grows in a few days a tiny threadlike plant, the protonema. Buds of young moss plants soon appear on this, and then, as a rule, the thread-plant dies. A moss plant consists of a stem with leaves and roots. The roots will grow out from any part of the plant that is kept dark and damp. Even from a detached leaf, roots and new plants will grow. By their branching habit, and by the death of the older parts, which leave the branches as separate plants, mosses are rapidly propagated, indeed in many species the production of spores is rare. Classification. There are about 3,000 species, divided into four orders: (1) Bryceæ, which include the vast majority of genera. (2) Phascacex. (3) Andreaceæ, no operculum; the sporangium opens by 4-8 longitudinal slits. (4) Sphagnaceæ, or bog mosses.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
lowly green flowerless plants often carpeting the ground or upholstering old logs. They have no true roots. Mosses may be known by tiny spore cases rising like street lamps from the tip of a leafy stem. The spore case or capsule is covered with a thin lid which flies off at maturity, leaving a fringe-guarded orifice, from which the spores escape. The gray sphagnum, a water-holding moss of evergreen swamps is much used by nurserymen for packing the roots of plants in shipment. Club mosses are ground pine , which see, and the "mosses" on trees are very likely lichens. Spanish moss is not a true moss, but a flowering parasite. Mosses grow in a great variety of situations. They play an important part in the world. Moss is one of the earliest forms of vegetation to take possession of newly formed soil, and are able to exist where grasses are impossible. They form a rich soil and pave the way for higher plants. Bog-moss or sphagnum forms the great peat beds of both continents. They serve an important end in the control of floods. A bed of moss retains water like a sponge and serves to retard the formation of torrents. There are about 5,000 species of mosses.