GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA. 93 



rity of time, necessarily takes the domestication of the 

 bee back also to that anterior period now only dimly 

 traceable. 



There can be but little doubt that the majority of the 

 creatures now domesticated by man were in those ancient 

 days subjected to his sway, and to which later times 

 have not added any, or but few fresh ones. A natural 

 instinct possibly prompted him originally in the selec- 

 tion ; and if the reindeer of the Laplander seem an aber- 

 ration, this has happened through the contingency of 

 climate, for in the high latitudes it inhabits, it, in its 

 uses to man, supplies the double function performed in 

 more southern regions by the equine and bovine tribes. 



In the Greek and in the Teutonic languages, two 

 branches of the Aryan stem, the names of the bee, 

 melissa and biene, are clearly derived from the con- 

 structive faculty of the insect, and to which the root 

 of the Sanskrit word madhukara, above noticed, also 

 points. It would seem, therefore, that an earlier notice 

 of its skill than of its honey, had suggested its name. 

 Thus everything points to a very early acquaintance 

 with the bee, its economy, and its properties, and this 

 familiarity might be easily traced down in regular suc- 

 cession to the present times, were it desirable to recapi- 

 tulate what has been so often repeated in the history of 

 the " Honey-bee." The facts I have gathered together 

 above, do not seem to have been hitherto strung to- 

 gether, and may be suggestive of reflection, as well as 

 affording some amusement. 



