140 
BRITISH BEES. 
undertake systematic study, by showing how interest¬ 
ing it may become if earnestly pursued, being so fraught 
with instruction of large compass. 
Works on natural history have divers objects in view, 
and may be intended either for popular and general dis¬ 
tribution, or for special scientific purposes, and in each 
ease the mode of treatment will materially differ. Many 
purposes may also be intended to be severally met in 
the strictly and rigidly scientific treatment. They may 
be either general methodical arrangements treated super¬ 
ficially, having no other design than to give a sort of bird’s- 
eye view of the subject in its wider distributions and 
broader landmarks, or they may treat of portions of the 
large subject more specially ; again, they may constitute 
monographs of varying extent from a family to a genus; 
or they may comprise loose descriptions of new species 
of old and well-established genera; and some such, con¬ 
junctively with new species, establish likewise new genera, 
indicating, at the same time, their proximate position in 
the general series. The two latter classes are usually 
the appendages to voyages and travels in distant unex¬ 
plored countries, or are the result of a careful collection 
of neglected tribes at home. Each, thus, with its special 
application has its special construction; but in the case 
of new species, I would strenuously counsel a full and 
complete description, and urge as imperative the con¬ 
struction of a specific character, formally framed to meet 
the condition of the science, based upon the precise 
antecedents and existing state of the genus to which 
such species belong. 
Even assuming that the knowledge of species is the 
essential foundation of the science, the preceding obser¬ 
vations show that there is a higher knowledge connected 
