Collections exhibit about sixteen species of the genus _Apis_, whose natural occurrence is restricted to the Old World, for although the genus, especially in the species _A. mellifica_, has been naturalized in America, and also in Australasia, and in some of the Islands of the Pacific, these were originally conveyed thither by Europeans. Those countries possess representatives of the genus with analogous attributes and functions, in two other genera, which fulfil the same uses. It is remarkable that the Red Indians used to note the gradual absorption of their territory by the White Man, through the forward advance of his herald _Apis mellifica_. This species has also been carried to India, to the Isle of Timor, and to northern, western, and southern Africa, in all which countries it is thoroughly naturalized, although they all possess indigenous species, which are quite as, or perhaps more largely, tributary to their inhabitants. Observation has not hitherto confirmed the identity of the manners of these exotic species with our own, owing to the deficiency of observers with the enthusiasm requisite to follow their peculiarities with the patience of a Réaumur, a Bonnet, or a Huber. That they are quite or all but similar, exclusively of differences of size, both in their habits and their nests, may be inferred from their identity of structure. We know that they consist of three kinds of individuals—neuters, females, and males,—and that their combs are made in cakes built vertically, formed of hexagonal contiguous cells, which are placed bottom to bottom, and overlap each other in the same strengthening position as do ours; and also that the cells wherein the males are developed are oval, larger than the honey-cells, and less uniform. With all these similitudes it is fair to suppose that their economy may be the same; but their honey-cells, from their smaller size, (the bee which produces them being smaller,) have a more elegant appearance; and it is concluded from the largeness of the nest, taken conjunctively with the smallness of the cells, and of the bees constructing it, that the communities thus associated must in their collective number be considerably larger than those of our hives.