Moss n.
 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.
 Note: ☞ 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.
 Note: ☞ 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 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 (Phlox 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 (Juncus squarrosus).
 Scale moss. See Hepatica.


 Span·ish a. Of or pertaining to Spain or the Spaniards.
 Spanish bayonet Bot., a liliaceous plant (Yucca alorifolia) with rigid spine-tipped leaves. The name is also applied to other similar plants of the Southwestern United States and mexico. Called also Spanish daggers.
 Spanish bean Bot. See the Note under Bean.
 Spanish black, a black pigment obtained by charring cork. --Ure.
 Spanish broom Bot., a leguminous shrub (Spartium junceum) having many green flexible rushlike twigs.
 Spanish brown, a species of earth used in painting, having a dark reddish brown color, due to the presence of sesquioxide of iron.
 Spanish buckeye Bot., a small tree (Ungnadia speciosa) of Texas, New Mexico, etc., related to the buckeye, but having pinnate leaves and a three-seeded fruit.
 Spanish burton Naut., a purchase composed of two single blocks. A double Spanish burton has one double and two single blocks. --Luce (Textbook of Seamanship).
 Spanish chalk Min., a kind of steatite; -- so called because obtained from Aragon in Spain.
 Spanish cress Bot., a cruciferous plant (Lepidium Cadamines), a species of peppergrass.
 Spanish curlew Zool., the long-billed curlew. [U.S.]
 Spanish daggers Bot. See Spanish bayonet.
 Spanish elm Bot., a large West Indian tree (Cordia Gerascanthus) furnishing hard and useful timber.
 Spanish feretto, a rich reddish brown pigment obtained by calcining copper and sulphur together in closed crucibles.
 Spanish flag Zool., the California rockfish (Sebastichthys rubrivinctus). It is conspicuously colored with bands of red and white.
 Spanish fly Zool., a brilliant green beetle, common in the south of Europe, used for raising blisters. See Blister beetle under Blister, and Cantharis.
 Spanish fox Naut., a yarn twisted against its lay.
 Spanish grass. Bot. See Esparto.
 Spanish juice Bot., licorice.
 Spanish leather. See Cordwain.
 Spanish mackerel. Zool. (a) A species of mackerel (Scomber colias) found both in Europe and America. In America called chub mackerel, big-eyed mackerel, and bull mackerel. (b) In the United States, a handsome mackerel having bright yellow round spots (Scomberomorus maculatus), highly esteemed as a food fish. The name is sometimes erroneously applied to other species. See Illust. under Mackerel.
 Spanish main, the name formerly given to the southern portion of the Caribbean Sea, together with the contiguous coast, embracing the route traversed by Spanish treasure ships from the New to the Old World.
 Spanish moss. Bot. See Tillandsia (and note at that entry).
 Spanish needles Bot., a composite weed (Bidens bipinnata) having achenia armed with needlelike awns.
 Spanish nut Bot., a bulbous plant (Iris Sisyrinchium) of the south of Europe.
 Spanish potato Bot., the sweet potato. See under Potato.
 Spanish red, an ocherous red pigment resembling Venetian red, but slightly yellower and warmer. --Fairholt.
 Spanish reef Naut., a knot tied in the head of a jib-headed sail.
 Spanish sheep Zool., a merino.
 Spanish white, an impalpable powder prepared from chalk by pulverizing and repeated washings, -- used as a white pigment.
 Spanish windlass Naut., a wooden roller, with a rope wound about it, into which a marline spike is thrust to serve as a lever.


 Til·land·si·a n.  Bot. An immense genus of epiphytic bromeliaceous plants confined to tropical and subtropical America. They usually bear a rosette of narrow overlapping basal leaves, which often hold a considerable quantity of water. The spicate or paniculate flowers have free perianth segments, and are often subtended by colored bracts. Also, a plant of this genus.
 Note: Tillandsia usneoides, called Spanish moss, long moss, black moss, and Florida moss, has a very slender pendulous branching stem, and forms great hanging tufts on the branches of trees in the Southeastern United States and south to Argentina. It is often used for stuffing mattresses

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 Air plant Bot. A plant deriving its sustenance from the air alone; an aërophyte.
 Note: ☞ The “Florida moss” (Tillandsia, many tropical orchids, and most mosses and lichens are air plants. Those which are lodged upon trees, but not parasitic on them, such as the Spanish moss Tillandsia usneoides), are epiphytes.

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 Spanish moss
      n : dense festoons of greenish-gray hairlike flexuous strands
          anchored to tree trunks and branches by sparse wiry
          roots; southeastern United States and West Indies to
          South America [syn: old man's beard, black moss, {long
          moss, Tillandsia usneoides]