The genus BOMBUS, although with some southern irrepressible propensities, it being found within the tropics in a few instances, is essentially a northern form, which is strongly indicated in its downy habiliments, for it is clothed in fur like the Czar in his costly blue-fox mantle. In the Old World its range extends to Lapland, whither it is followed, as previously noticed, by its parasite _Apathus_, and in the New World to Greenland, where one species seems an autochthon, perhaps originating there when the land was still verdant, and grew grapes, long before the age of Madoc. Other species occur far away to the north of east, booming through the desolate wilds of Kamtchatka, having been found at Sitka; and their cheerful hum is heard within the Arctic circle, as high as Boothia Felix, thus more northerly than the seventieth parallel. They may, perhaps, with their music often convey to the broken-hearted and lonely exile in Siberia, the momentarily cheering reminiscence of joyful youth, and by this bright and brief interruption break the monotonous and painful dullness of his existence, recalling the happier days of yore: but the flowers of humanity, here typified by the natural flowers which attract these stray comforters, will one day spring where the salt of tears now desolates, and thus the merry bees have sweetness for even these poor outcasts, and froth their bitter cup with bubbling hope. In the south of Europe the genus occurs in Austria, the island of Zante, and the Pyrenees. It is found in Syria, the island of Java, in China at Chusan and Silhet, and also in northern India; and, although crossing the tropics to fix itself at Monte Video, at the mouth of Rio de la Plata, in Africa it appears to be found at Oran only; nor does it occur in Australasia. In South America it is also found at Pará and Cayenne, and on the opposite side at Columbia, Quito, and Chili, and passes up the isthmus to California, and thence to Mexico, whence it extends to the island of Antigua. -------