SCIENTIFIC CULTIVATION OF BRITISH BEES. 
143 
lie divides Apis into what may be considered as two 
sections, Apis domestica forming the first, and the 
second containing his Apes silvestres, or wild bees. 
Nine of these are described and numbered consecutively, 
which are followed by eleven descriptions unnumbered, 
some of the latter having been supplied to him by 
Francis Willughby, whose initials are attached to these, 
and amongst which we find the description of the willow 
bee, subsequently, from this cause, named by Kirby, 
from its original describer, and now universally known 
as Megachile Willughbiella. 
Ray’s second genus is Bombylius, identical, as far as 
it goes, with the modern genus Bombus , excepting that 
it includes an Anthophora. He here describes nineteen, 
all numbered. Ray’s names are phrases, the mode of 
describing then prevalent in all the natural sciences, 
until the happy introduction of the binomial system by 
the great genius of natural history —Linnaeus. These 
phrases are almost tantamount to the modern specific 
character; but Ray unfortunately attaches no size, yet 
size might have lent some aid to their modern deter¬ 
mination. 
Mr. Kirby was able to identify and introduce into his 
synonymy only a few of Ray’s insects, from the defec¬ 
tiveness of the descriptions; the following embrace all 
that could be verified :— 
No. 1 of the Apes silvestres is our Anthidium man- 
caium; No. 3, the male of Anthophora retusa, the fe¬ 
male of which being No. 4 of his Bombylii; No. 4 of 
the Apes is Andrena nitida: these comprise all of those 
numbered which could be recognized. The first of the 
unnumbered is the male of Eucera longicornis; the 
fourth is Melecta punctata ; the sixth is Colletes fodiens; 
