GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA. 89 



but there is no doubt that, so far as present information 

 extends, India has the superiority. Thus Apis dorsata, 

 Apis nigripennis, and Apis socialis, are cultivated in 

 Bengal, the latter being also found along the Malabar 

 coast and at Java. It is singular that the only instance 

 of the occurrence of the very distinct genera of Apis 

 and Mellipona, both honey-storing genera, yet known 

 to exist indigenously in the same locality, is found in 

 this island. At Pondicherry and its vicinity are found' 

 Apis Delessertii and Apis Indica. This latter bee is 

 extensively cultivated, and its hives are perhaps the 

 most largely inhabited of any of the species ; the num- 

 bers occupying a single nest being estimated at above 

 eighty thousand. 



o * 



From India also, but to which no special locality is 

 assigned, come Apis Perrottetii, Apis lobata, as likewise 

 Apis Peronii, which is equally native to the Isle of 

 Timor. The honey produced by this last bee is yellow, 

 more liquid than ours, and of a very agreeable flavour. 



Thus science dissipates the popular supposition, that 

 a multiplicity of the individuals of one species of this 

 insect produces the tons of wax and the myriads of 

 gallons of honey that are annually consumed. 



Which of these bees first benefited the human race, 

 in its primitive seat, and before the multiplication of 

 mankind forced them to take divergent courses from the 

 cradle of their birthrace, "to people the whole earth," it 

 is impossible to say. And it is equally impossible to con- 

 jecture whether, like man, they by this course of migra- 

 tion have assumed the features they now exhibit of dis- 

 tinctly different species ; yet they do not vary so conside- 

 rably among themselves as do many other creatures that 

 have come under the direct influence of man, the chief 



