242 INQUIRY GONCERNING 
Common-Dandelion, and the Chryfanthemum Leucanthe= 
mum, or Greater-Daify*, are, certainly foreigners, which 
have extended the empire of their growth fince the dif-. 
covery of the new-world, though they are generally con~. 
fidered, both by the vulgar and by the more enlightened,, 
as truly indigenous to our country. 
Within the term of three hundred years, many ani- 
mals originally not natives of this country have likewife 
made their way into it. Thus, it may be doubted whether 
the Rat, the Moufe, the Tinea, or Moth, fo pernicious to 
our clothes, the F/ea, the Bed-Bug, and many others, 
were known in the countries of America before the arrival 
of the Europeans inthis continent. It has lately been af- 
ferted that the TRuE Honey-Ber, the Apis mellifica of 
Linnzus, is nota native of America, and, I think, the 
opinion is well founded, though it has.recently been con-. 
troverted by the reverend Dr. Belknap, in a differtation 
which he has publifhed onthe fubje& +. This diflertation 
I have read with attention; but fo far from weakening it 
has ftrengthened the opinion that this {pecies of Bee was 
not found.in the new-world before Golumbus conducted. 
us to the knowledge of it. 
The ingenious Mr. Jefferfon feems to have given rife. 
to this inquiry. In his valuable work, entitled Notes on 
the State of Virginia, this refpetable author has the fol- 
lowing words. ‘ The honey-bee is not a native of our 
continent. Marcgrave indeed mentions a fpecies of 
honey-bee in Brafil. But this has no fling, and is there- 
fore 
* My learned and ingenious friend Mr. Pennant has mentioned the Leontodon Taraxacum 
and the Chryfanthemum Ledcanthémum among’ thofe plants which are common to Kamtfkatca 
and the caft fide of America. See his Ardic Zoology, Introduction, page cxxxiv. As thefe 
two plants are natives of Kamtfkatca, it is highly probable that they may be indigenous on 
the wef fide of America. Be this, however, as.it may, I am confident that they are not 
natives of the Atlantic parts of the northern continent. - 
+ Itisannexed to an ingenious and well-written paper, entitled 4 dicourfe intended to com 
memorate the diftovery of America by Chriflopher Columbus, Bolton ; 1792. 8vd- 
