THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE 213 



the many-shaped Osmice, which have a hundred different and 

 special industries. One branch, the Osmia papaveris, not 

 content with finding the needful wine and bread in the 

 flower, will cut great strips of purple from the corolla of 

 the poppy, and royally carpet therewith the palace of her 

 daughters. Another bee, the tiniest of all, a speck of dust 

 that flashes by on four electric wings, the Megachile centuncu- 

 laris, will cut in the rose-leaves semicircles so perfect that one 

 might almost believe them to have been done with a punch- 

 ing machine ; these she will bend, and adjust, and with 

 them contrive a series of admirably regular little thimbles, 

 whereof each one will be a larva's cell. But a whole volume 

 would scarcely suffice to enumerate the various talents and 

 habits of the honey-seeking crowd that scatter themselves in 

 all directions among the eager, passive flowers : the chained 

 brides who await the message of love that their heedless 

 guests shall bring. 



107 



Of wild bees approximately 4500 varieties are known. It 

 need scarcely be said that we shall not go through the list. 

 Some day, perhaps, a profound study, and searching experiments 

 and observations of a kind hitherto unknown, that would 

 demand more than one lifetime, will throw a decisive light 

 upon the history of the bee's evolution. All that we can do 

 now is to enter this veiled region of supposition, and, discarding 

 all positive statement, attempt to follow a tribe of hymenoptera 

 in their progress towards a more intelligent existence, towards 

 a little more security and comfort ; lightly indicating the salient 



