Schenk, author of three other horticultural books, points out that traces of moss have been found in 400-million-year-old fossils. There are 15,000 living moss species, 1,200 of them in North America. Schenk defines the varieties of moss plants and follows with chapters on moss gardens in Japan (a garden in Kyoto was designed in the fourteenth century) and on gardens in Europe and North America. There are chapters on mossy rocks, moss carpets, alpine gardens, growing moss in containers, and the use of moss as ground covers beneath bonsai trees. Schenk lists approximatety 60 plants alphabetically by genus, with advice on propagating, cultivating, and transplanting. Includes 97 color photographs.