88 BRITISH BEES. 



species congenerical with our honey-bee^ but sufficiently 

 differing. As I have before noticed, the species of this 

 genus greatly more resemble each other in structure 

 than perhaps do the species collocated within any other 

 genus of insects, and whence may be inferred an exact 

 similitude of habits, although as yet unconfirmed by 

 direct observation. 



The second European species, the Apis Ligustica, or 

 Ligurian bee, is rather larger, but very like ours, and 

 inhabits the whole of the north of Italy, its occupation 

 of that country extending from Genoa to the vicinity of 

 Trieste; its progress further north being impeded by the 

 Alps of Switzerland and the Tyrol. It is also found in 

 Naples, and may likewise spread to the Morea, Turkey, 

 and the Archipelago of Greece, and is perhaps the bee 

 noticed by Virgil. Either this species, or possibly one 

 distinct from ours, is that which is so extensively culti- 

 vated in Spain, although oars is found in Barbary. 



Another smaller kind, the Apis fasciata, has been 

 cultivated in Egypt from time immemorial, and which 

 yielded its abundant harvests for the gratification of the 

 ancient Romans. Only five other distinct species, so far 

 as is yet known to us, appear to occupy the vast conti- 

 nent of Africa, — two on its western coast at Senegal and 

 Congo, the A. Adansonii and the A. Nigritarium ; two 

 in Caffraria, the A. scutellata and the Apis Caffra. That 

 at Madagascar, and doubtless on the adjacent mainland, 

 which has also been naturalized in the Mauritius and at 

 Reunion, is the Apis unicolor, which produces the green 

 honey mentioned above. 



India, however, at present appears to be the true metro- 

 polis of the genus. Further discoveries in Africa may here- 

 after give that vastly larger continent the predominancy ; 



