64 BRITISH BEES. 



rare. The present slight attempt to trace the geography 

 and cosmopolitan range of our native genera of bees 

 will necessarily be affected to some considerable extent 

 by this neglect. 



Although the materials in our possession will yield 

 some fruit, yet their collection will be but the gleaner's 

 handful, instead of a loaded wain from a rich and abun- 

 dant harvest. As what I have gathered may still have 

 an interest for some of my readers, I will lay it before 

 them, and in doing so I shall take the genera in their 

 methodical series. 



The genus Colletes comes first, a position the more 

 remarkable from the peculiarities of its economy and 

 form, which bring it closely to the true bees, as do also 

 its aptitude, by reason of its structure, for collecting 

 pollen, and its energy in gathering it. The divergence 

 in the form of the tongue brings it, however, to the ex- 

 treme commencement of the series, it being the closest 

 structural link we find for connecting the bees with the 

 preceding family of wasps. This genus, in our own 

 species, ranges through northern Europe to the high la- 

 titude of Finland, passing through Sweden; and it oc- 

 curs also in Russia and in the Polish Ukraine. In 

 other species than ours, and differing among themselves, 

 it occurs at both extremities of Africa, in Egypt, and 

 Algeria, and at the Cape of Good Hope; but whether 

 throughout the wide interval collections do not inform 

 us. It has been sent from Turkey, but whence? — for 

 this is as vague a designation as Russia, both being 

 empires which spread over vast areas, — and, if found in 

 their Asiatic divisions, are the only instances we know 

 of its Asiatic occurrence. It is so easy for collectors to 

 add to their specimens a defined and precise locality, 



