140 BRITISH BEES. 



undertake systematic study, by showing how interest- 

 ing it may become if earnestly pursued, being so fraught 

 with instruction of large compass. 



Works on natural history have divers objects in view, 

 and may be intended either for popular and general dis- 

 tribution, or for special scientific purposes, and in each 

 case the mode of treatment will materially differ. Many 

 purposes may also be intended to be severally met in 

 the strictly and rigidly scientific treatment. They may 

 be either general methodical arrangements treated super- 

 ficially, having no other design than to give a sort of bird's- 

 eye view of the subject in its wider distributions and 

 broader landmarks, or they may treat of portions of the 

 large subject more specially ; again, they may constitute 

 monographs of varying extent from a family to a genus ; 

 or they may comprise loose descriptions of new species 

 of old and well-established genera ; and some such, con- 

 junctively with new species, establish likewise new genera, 

 indicating, at the same time, their proximate position in 

 the general series. The two latter classes are usually 

 the appendages to voyages and travels in distant unex- 

 plored countries, or are the result of a careful collection 

 of neglected tribes at home. Each, thus, with its special 

 application has its special construction ; but in the case 

 of new species, I would strenuously counsel a full and 

 complete description, and urge as imperative the con- 

 struction of a specific character, formally framed to meet 

 the condition of the science, based upon the precise 

 antecedents and existing state of the genus to which 

 such species belong. 



Even assuming that the knowledge of species is the 

 essential foundation of the science, the preceding obser- 

 vations show that there is a higher knowledge connected 



