64 
BRITISH BEES. 
rare. The present slight attempt to trace the geography 
and cosmopolitan range of our native genera of bees 
will necessarily be affected to some considerable extent 
by this neglect. 
Although the materials in our possession will yield 
some fruit, yet their collection will be but the gleaner’s 
handful, instead of a loaded wain from a rich and abun¬ 
dant harvest. As what I have gathered may still have 
an interest for some of my readers, I will lay it before 
them, and in doing so I shall take the genera in their 
methodical series. 
The genus Colletes comes first, a position the more 
remarkable from the peculiarities of its economy and 
form, which bring it closely to the true bees, as do also 
its aptitude, by reason of its structure, for collecting 
pollen, and its energy in gathering it. The divergence 
in the form of the tongue brings it, however, to the ex¬ 
treme commencement of the series, it being the closest 
structural link we find for connecting the bees with the 
preceding family of wasps. This genus, in our own 
species, ranges through northern Europe to the high la¬ 
titude of Finland, passing through Sweden; and it oc¬ 
curs also in Russia and in the Polish Ukraine. In 
other species than ours, and differing among themselves, 
it occurs at both extremities of Africa, in Egypt, and 
Algeria, and at the Cape of Good Hope; but whether 
throughout the wide interval collections do not inform 
us. It has been sent from Turkey, but whence?—for 
this is as vague a designation as Russia, both being- 
empires which spread over vast areas,—and, if found in 
their Asiatic divisions, are the only instances we know 
of its Asiatic occurrence. It is so easy for collectors to 
add to their specimens a defined and precise locality, 
