BEES AND CLOVEE 453 



that Humble bees would not visit small flowers in New 

 Zealand, because they do not in England ? In England I 

 fancy the more numerous and active hive bee forestalls the 

 Humble bees in the matter of small flowers — if indeed the 

 Humble bees do not visit the latter. They surely visit 

 Heather flowers in Scotland ? 



It would indeed be curious if a relation could be traced 

 between no bees and no small flowered Leguminosae, but 

 you must remember the strange absence of small Leguminosae 

 in Fuegia, Falklands, and the Pacific Islands generally. 

 The question hence becomes a very involved one and forms 

 part of a larger one, viz., is there any relation between the 

 Geog. distrib. of bees and of Leguminosae ? 



Bentham's late researches into the British Flora have 

 so greatly modified his views of the limits of species, that 

 in my eyes they invalidate the results of local Floras very 

 materially. He has completed the MS. of his British Flora, 

 having studied every species from all parts of the world, 

 and most of them alive in Britain, France, and other parts 

 of Europe. Well — he has turned out as great a lumper as 

 I am ! and worse. 



Then did you see a paper of Decaisne's on Pyrus, trans- 

 lated in Gard. Chron. about 3 weeks ago — in which he adopts 

 Thomson's and my views of species and says that if he had 

 to monograph Plantaginaceae again he would reduce whole 

 sections to one species and of course as many species, i.e. 

 marked forms, would then rank as varieties. Now it was 

 Decaisne (a most admirable Botanist) who on receiving the 

 Flora Indica, wrote me most kindly and earnestly begging 

 me to reconsider my mode of viewing species, and hinting 

 that I was going to the devil. AU this does not directly 

 affect your results, but it shows that you should draw them 

 from materials of all kinds — ^local and general, and from 

 systematists. ... 



[The following is in answer to Darwin's letters of February 9 

 (M.L. i. 107) and February 23 (CD. ii. 110 and M.L. i. 107), 

 suggesting that the smaU genera vary less than the large.] 



February 24, 1868. 

 I will answer your query about big genera, dehberately, 

 in the affirmative and give answers. I have^been^thinking 

 VOL. I 2 a 



