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CHAPTER III. 
SKETCH OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA OF 
BRITISH BEES. 
In giving a broad sketch of the geography of the 
genera of bees which are native to our islands, but 
whose local distribution I shall reserve for notice in the 
account of the genera themselves, I must regret at the 
outset the lack of materials for its satisfactory treat¬ 
ment. 
There are but very few exceptions to the dearth of 
assiduity in this direction ; a very favourable one is that 
of the son of the late venerable hymenopterologist, the 
Count le Pelletier de St. Fargeau, who, at his military post 
as an officer of the French army in Algeria, stationed at 
Oran, collected energetically for his father in that district, 
and where, in one of his collecting excursions, he was 
severely wounded by a musket-ball. Another equally 
favourable exception is that of Sydney Smith Saunders, 
Esq., residing at Prevesa, in Albania, who has stre¬ 
nuously and perseveringly collected in that country. 
Here and there we can point to something having been 
done in Upper India, in the vicinity of Poonah, at Pon¬ 
dicherry, in Java, in some limited localities of China, and 
to some extent in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, 
