and Varieties of the Honey -Bee. 333 



Barton, is to be found in the work of Hernandez on New Spain 

 (Franc. Hernandez, Rerum medicarum Novse Hispanise The- 

 saurus, RomEB, 1648, lib. ix. p. 333. cap. 21). Hernandez says, 

 " Multa mellis genera in Nova Hispania mihi adhuc observare 

 licuit, non loco solum, veluti vetere orbe, verum ipsa materia et 

 apum diversis generibus distantia. Primum est Hispaniensi per 

 omnia simile idemque et quod ab apibus Hispanicis congeneribus 

 sponte in cavitatibus arborum fabricetur, quas Indi sectas in 

 apiaria reponunt ac congerunt." Such evidence as this, from an 

 observer only seventy years later than the conquest of Mexico, 

 would almost seem to be convincing ; but it may be urged, on 

 the one hand, that there had been time enough for the intro- 

 duction of the European Bee into the colony and for its disper- 

 sion, and on the other, with more probability, that, as Hernandez 

 had no pretensions to be a practised zoologist, he mistook one 

 of the native species for the true Honey-Bee. This is rendered 

 more probable by the existence in Mexico of a species of Meli- 

 pona (still undescribed) intermediate between M. rujiventris and 

 bicolor, Lepel., which so closely resembles the European Honey- 

 Bee, at least in form and size, that an unpractised observer of 

 the sixteenth century might easily have confounded them. 



With regard to Belknap's third proof. Barton thinks that, on 

 account of the occurrence of indigenous Bees (Melipona, Tri- 

 ffona), the pot of honey found by Ferdinand de Soto in Florida 

 has no more value as evidence than the Mexican tribute. But 

 this notion is without foundation, as we have no evidence of the 

 existence of such Bees in Florida, It is, however, not impro- 

 bable ; for as only one species of Melipona (the Apis atrata,Fah.) 

 is known from North America, whilst the northern extension of 

 the Melipona and Trigona otherwise terminates with the Antilles 

 and Mexico, we may assume with great probability that this 

 single species, which extends beyond the proper district of its 

 group, will exist in the southernmost portion of North America. 

 But however this may be, Purchas's statement can by no means 

 lead to the assumption that the European Bee existed in Florida in 

 the time of Ferdinand de Soto, as is shown by another report, 

 by a Portuguese nobleman who accompanied that general (A 

 Relation of the Invasion and Conquest of Florida by the Spaniards 

 under Fernando de Soto). In this it is stated that ''The In- 

 dians of Chiaha had a great quantity of butter or, rather, fat, in 

 pots, as fluid as oil ; they said it was bear's fat. We also found 

 there walnut-oil, as clear as the fat, and a pot of honey, although 

 neither before nor afterwards did we find either bees or honey in 

 the whole of Florida." Barton also quotes a statement of Wil- 

 liam Bartram's which dii-ectly proves the introduction of the 

 Honey-Bee into Florida. He says, "When Bartram was in 



