Moss

Moss, a city and district in Norway.

• 26.000 inhabitants.
• Natural trade and service center for neighboring districts with an additional 25.000 people.
• Covers 64 square kilometres.
• Ferry to Horten and Hirtshals(Denmark).
• E6 (European Route) - 60 km to Oslo.
• 70 km from the Swedish border.
• The regional government is located in Moss.

Moss is notorious for its many factories - in fact, it has more than 250 industrial companies, ranging from paper to rainwear.

Because of that, most people just think of the smell when they hear something about Moss.

For those of you who have got your Norwegian right, more info would be found on the infamous World Wide Web, more precisely at www.moss.kommune.no.

Peat mosses (Class Sphagnopsida) are plants which form spongy, pale-green mats in still freshwater environments like pools, bogs, swamps, and the shores of lakes and ponds.

Members of Class Andreaeopsida (which includes the granite mosses) are blackish-green plants with rhizoids which grow on silica-containing rocks (such as granite) at high altitudes and on soils in cold regions.

True mosses (Class Bryopsida) are a large and diverse group of plants that tend to consist of tiny, branching filaments, rhizoids, and reproductive organs at the tips of their leaflike filaments which release spores. They mostly grow on tree branches, rocks, and bare soil, but may also grow in freshwater streams or in arid regions.

From the science dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/

Moss (?), n. [OE. mos; akin to AS. meos, D. mos, G. moos, OHG. mos, mios, Icel. mosi, Dan. mos, Sw. mossa, Russ. mokh', L. muscus. Cf. Muscoid.]

1. Bot.

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.

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, ∨ 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 Zool., 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.

© Webster 1913.

Moss, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mossed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Mossing.]

To cover or overgrow with moss.

An oak whose boughs were mossed with age. Shak.

© Webster 1913.