REPORT FOR 1903. 
5 
Hanbury also suggests that “ the members should be invited to 
send well dried and representative specimens of any plants from 
the various parts of Great Britain, so that our collections may 
show the common plants in all their ranges of form and character, 
as well as to exemplify, to a large extent, the distribution.” 
May I be allowed to say that with these suggestions I fully 
agree. At the present time there are many species whose range 
of variability is quite imperfectly known. When the recent ‘Flore 
de France ’ is contrasted with our latest British Flora we shall 
be able to see what an amount of headway we have to make up 
before we reach that standard of critical discrimination. 
But for critical purposes, very special care in selecting and 
preparing the specimens will have to be adopted, and solitary 
specimens- will be useless. Again, the accompanying labels, or 
rather the one descriptive label which is meant for publication 
in the Report, could well be much more complete as to the 
details of the kind of situation ; the soils and strata on which 
the plant grows, its sheltered or shaded position, the altitude, 
and its associates, are points which would give life and meaning 
to an otherwise arid or comparatively useless note. 
By these means important additions to our knowledge of plant 
oecology would be gradually acquired. So far from the Club having 
finished its work, it appears to me that we are only beginning to 
understand the necessity of widening our range of observation 
and of beginning investigations from a higher level. One more 
suggestion. If an additional specimen of each plant sent were 
presented by the members, it could be sent to the British Museum 
Herbarium, and would be there for future reference, while the 
great National Herbarium would itself be made more completely 
representative. 
Just a sentence as to our financial position. The compara- 
tirely small membership roll, on the one side, and the expense 
of printing not only the Report, but also the ‘ desiderata list,’ and 
the cost of distributing the parcels, which are returned post free, 
induce me for the time to accept the kind offer of many members 
to increase the subscription to ^s. 6d. annually for members who 
contribute parcels and participate in the distribution of specimens. 
To those members who remain on our books and receive the 
