10 Report, Sfc. 



The President exhibited to the Society a beautiful collection 

 of British sea weeds, presented by Mrs. Gray. He also mentioned 

 that Sir John Lubbock, F.R.S. had presented a copy of his 

 " Prehistoric Times " to the Society. 



The exhibitions were : — 



A collection of the chief Genera of Marine and Freshwater Shells. 



A curious Spider's Nest . . . . by the Rev. F. W. Farrar. 



A. J. Evans then read a Paper on 



MOSSES, 



in which he pointed out the characteristics of mosses as dis- 

 tinguished from other plants, especially cryptogams, and minutely 

 described their structure. Some of the most noticeable mosses, 

 such as Hypnum, Polytrichum, Mungo Park's moss, &c., were 

 more particularly examined. 



We extract the following on the facility of collecting mosses : — 



For several reasons it is very easy to collect mosses, for they are 

 not liable to mildew or insects. They can be laid by for any 

 amount of time, and be restored again by simply dipping them in 

 water ; and to dry them, all you have to do is to put them between 

 two sheets of blotting paper, and press them for a few days. 



With all these advantages it seems odd that they should be so 

 rarely collected, and yet so it is ; you see about forty collections 

 of postage stamps or crests to one of mosses, although moss is 

 infinitely more beautiful. 



They have, however, one seeming drawback, and that is the 

 difficulty in naming them. It is useless to look out for a moss in 

 a book without knowing anything about them before. You are 

 quickly put out by their description ; but the best way is to collect 

 a few, and to get some one who knows about mosses to name them 

 for you. You then have a basis to start from, and can compare 

 those named with their description in some book, and thus you 

 will be in time able to find them out for yourself. 



After you have dried moss it can be stuck on to card board or 

 paper with gum, using as little as possible ; when once dried they 

 fade very little. 



The paper was illustrated by diagrams and a collection of 

 mosses from the neighbourhood of Harrow. 



