BEES AND CLOVER 453 
that Humble bees would not visit small flowers in New 
Zealand, because they do not in England ? In England I 
fancy the more numerous and active hive bee forestalls the 
Humble bees in the matter of small flowers — if indeed the 
Humble bees do not visit the latter. They surely visit 
Heather flowers in Scotland ? 
It would indeed be curious if a relation could be traced 
between no bees and no small flowered Leguminosae, but 
you must remember the strange absence of small Leguminosae 
in Fuegia, Falklands, and the Pacific Islands generally. 
The question hence becomes a very involved one and forms 
part of a larger one, viz., is there any relation between the 
Geog. distrib. of bees and of Leguminosae 9 
Bentham's late researches into the British Flora have 
so greatly modified his views of the limits of species, that 
in my eyes they invahdate the results of local Floras very 
materially. He has completed the MS. of his British Flora, 
having studied every species from all parts of the world, 
and most of them alive in Britain, France, and other parts 
of Europe. Well — he has turned out as great a lumper as 
I am ! and worse. 
Then did you see a paper of Decaisne's on Pyrus, trans- 
lated in Gard. Chro7i. about 3 weeks ago — in which he adopts 
Thomson's and my views of species and says that if he had 
to monograph Plantaginaceae again he would reduce whole 
sections to one species and of course as many species, i.e. 
marked forms, would then rank as varieties. Now it was 
Decaisne (a most admirable Botanist) who on receiving the 
Flora Indica, wrote me most kindly and earnestly begging 
me to reconsider my mode of viewing species, and hinting 
that I was going to the devil. All this does not directly 
affect your results, but it shows that you should draw them 
from materials of all kinds — local and general, and from 
systematists. . . . 
[The following is in answer to Darwin's letters of February 9 
(M.L. i. 107) and February 23 (CD. ii. 110 and M.L. i. 107), 
suggesting that the small genera vary less than the large.] 
February 24, 1858. 
I will answer your query about big genera, dehberately, 
in the affirmative and give answers. I have been thinkSg 
VOL. I 2 G 
