I am very new to Bryce and my question will let you know how much of a rookie I am. How do I take a Material form The material editor, )ex: Lava surface) and actually place it on my screen. Ive hit the check marks but dont know how to put it anywhere. Also i suppose the rest of the materials. Is there any certain way to place things? Thanks in advance.

Well, you have to have an object or terrain or even the ground plane (which is the little grid that appears in every default scene) selected, which means just click on the ground plane or any object (if you create a new object, say, a sphere, it will be selected when it's created) and the wireframe will turn red, OK? Then you just click on one of those materials in the palette, then click the little check mark down in the bottom right corner of the palette, and the material you chose will be applied to your object. Just click the render button to see it in all of its glory.