104 
THE BEGINNERS’ SECTION. 
The Beginners’ Section, long a desideratum of the Club, was 
commenced in the Autumn of last year, and up to the present has 
been joined by 45 members. Three of these have since joined the 
parent Society, and one member only of the Senior Society has 
considered it to be worth while to join the Section. 
Of this total of 46 members, but few have, however, up to the 
present done much work, although some others have displayed 
much activity and enthusiasm. The first Distribution was held on 
Jan. 1, igoo, and every member received a parcel of specimens, 
whether he had sent any in for distribution or not. That this was 
possible was owing to my having received some 200 specimens 
from Mr. Wheldon. and smaller parcels from Messrs. Ingham and 
Lett, and to my having distributed some 500 of my own duplicates. 
On the second Distribution held June 1, ’01, parcels were only sent 
to those members who had sent in specimens for distribution. 
On the whole, the specimens sent in by the members of the 
section—although generally consisting of the commoner British 
species—were decidedly good as to condition, mode of preparation, 
and method of packing and labelling, and in these most important 
matters the section gives a good many points to the parent Society. 
I am in hopes that the encouragement now given by the 
Beginners’ Section of the club to a new generation of bryologists 
in this country will go far to raising the standard for what is con¬ 
sidered to be a moss “specimen,” and a herbarium “ ticket.” 
Some hundreds of specimens have also been sent to be named, 
but in this case the condition of the so-called specimen has fre¬ 
quently left much to be desired. It should be recognized that 
specimens sent for naming ought, whenever possible, to be good 
herbarium specimens, and ought in every case to be fully labelled, 
the name of the plant, (if possible,) the locality, county, v. c* 
number, name of collector, name of sender if different from that 
of the collector, date, altitude, nature of the soil, &c., &c., being 
written on a herbarium ticket, included within the packet, instead 
of being written on the outside of the packet. Each packet ought 
to bear a reference number, which should run consecutively from 
one sending to the next. Specimens sent to be named are not 
returned. 
Of course it frequently happens that only a small tuft of a plant 
is found, or there may be doubt in the mind of the beginner 
whether two neighbouring tufts are the same species, and in such 
cases only small specimens can be sent, and in insisting on “ good ” 
specimens I do not wish to prevent the beginner from studying 
such. The “ condition ” of the specimen is however a matter to 
which much greater attention might advantageously be given. 
