Dr. A. Giinther on some Species of Tree-Snakes. 283 



" A peculiar species of Bee which inhabits these heights [near 

 Lange Kloof] prepares the most beautiful honey from the flowers 

 of the Brunia, and stores it in hollow trunks of trees and the 

 clefts of the rocks. The honey is perfectly white ; and the waxen 

 cells are so thin that during their collection they melt up with 

 the honey, which may then be conveniently poured into a bottle. 

 Its taste is so fine that I cannot imagine that of Hymettus to 

 have been better. It is often collected and used instead of 

 sugar by the colonists of Lange Kloof"*. Lastly, with regard to 

 the dark Bee occurring in the eastern islands of Africa, namely 

 Madagascar and the Mauritius, Latreille, who describes it as A. 

 unicolor, speaks as follows f : — " The honey of this species has 

 a greenish tinge when it is contained in the combs ; its colour 

 and excellence depend upon the diversity of the plants of those 

 regions, and upon the temperature. The inhabitants of Mada- 

 gascar have understood how to avail themselves of the industry 

 of these insects; for we possess a memoir by M. delaNux upon 

 the form of the beehives which are in use there/' Lepelletier's 

 statement (Hist. Nat. Hymenopteres, i. p. 403), that this Bee 

 has been introduced into the Mauritius, is contradicted by 

 Grant's assertion (Hist, of Mauritius, 1801, p. 67), that the 

 Mauritian Bee, which produces very fine honey, is indigenous 

 to the island. 



• [To be continued.] 



XXXII. — On some Species of Tree-Snakes (Ahsetulla). 

 By Dr. Albert Gunther. 



A. The Subgeneric Division Philothamnus, A. Smith. 



The whole of Tropical Africa is inhabited by a group of Tree- 

 Snakes which are distinguished by a habit which is not exces- 

 sively slender; by a normally shaped head; by smooth scales; by 

 posterior longer teeth, not separated from the others by an in- 

 terval, and not grooved ; by a round pupil of the eye ; and by a 

 green coloration, almost always varied by the black skin be- 

 tween the scales, and by white dots placed at the base of each 

 scale. Species of this group have been named by Sir Andrew 

 Smith Philothamnus, and three different kinds were distinguished 

 by him — Ph. semivariegatus, Ph. albovariatus, Ph. natalensis. 

 There can be no doubt that the second of these species is iden- 

 tical with Dendrophis Chenonii, Bernhardt, or with Coluber irre- 

 gularis, Leach, of which we have the typical specimens. 



At a later period, a similar Snake was described by Hallowell 

 as Chlorophis heterodermus. 



* Reisen in siicllichen Afrika in den Jahren 1803 bis 1806, 1. Band, p. 355, 

 f Annales du Museum, v. p. 168. 



19* 



