THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE 2o3 



in which we stand to the humble honey-fly), one who knew 

 not our language, and was endowed with senses totally different 

 from our own ; were such an one to have been studying us, 

 he would recognise certain curious material transformations in 

 the course of the last two-thirds of the century, but would 

 be totally unable to form any conception of our moral, social, 

 political, economic, or religious evolution. 



The most likely of all the scientific hypotheses will 

 presently permit us to connect our domestic bee with the 

 great tribe of the " Apiens," which embraces all wild bees, and 

 where its ancestors are probably to be found. We shall then 

 perceive physiological, social, economic, industrial, and archi- 

 tectural transformations more extraordinary than those of our 

 human evolution. But for the moment we will limit ourselves 

 to our domestic bee properly so called. Of these sixteen fairly 

 distinct species are known ; but, essentially, whether we 

 consider the Apis dorsata, the largest known to us, or the 

 Apis forea, which is the smallest, the insect is always exactly 

 the same, except for the slight modifications induced by the 

 cHmate and by the conditions whereto it has had to conform.^ 

 The difference between these various species is scarcely greater 

 than that between an Englishman and a Russian, or a Japanese 



' The scientific classification of the domestic bee is as follows : — 



Class Insecta 



Order Hymenoptera 



Family Apidae 



Genus Apis 



Species Mellifica 



The term "Mellifica" is that of the Linn»an classification. It is not of the happiestj 

 for all the Apidae, with the exception of certain parasites perhaps, are producers of honey. 

 Scopoli uses the term "Cerifera"; Rdaumur "Domestica"; Geoffroy "Gregaria." The 

 "Apis Ligustica," the Italian bee, is another variety of the " Mellifica," 



