322 Bibliographical Notices, 



The following description may serve to distinguish the species 

 Myrapetra scutellaris, n. sp. (PI. IV. t. 4-7) : 



M. brunneo-fuliginosa, sericeo ubique pubescens, mesothoracis 



scutello, metathoracis praescuto flavescentibus ; alis hyalinis, 



stigmate nervisque brunneis. 

 Hab. Amer. Merid. In Mus. Brit. 

 It is smooth ; the scutellum has a fine impressed dark line down 



the middle ; the stemmata are of an amber colour. 



The figure of the insect is hthographed from an outline 

 made by Mr. Westwood at my request, which, however, is 

 slightly altered, as the specimen, when Mr. Westwood drew it, 

 was unset. The section of the nest, fig. 3, was most carefully 

 drawn by Mr. Basire, jun. from the original. In the Museum 

 collection there are two specimens seemingly identical with 

 those I took from the nest, and Mr. Shuckard has shown me 

 a larger specimen which may very probably be the female ; 

 this has dark stemmata. 



I have been unable to add a description of the maxillae, 

 palpi or tongue, the last of which, in an insect collecting 

 honey as this does, must be particularly organized ; but hope, 

 that when more specimens are met with, I may have an op- 

 portunity of doing so. 



I may add, that in the nest I found the remains of a black- 

 bodied, black-winged fly, with rufous thorax, allied to Bibio ; 

 and of a neuropterous insect resembling the Hemerobius ner- 

 vosus in size and markings of wings, but with a longer thorax : 

 the nest described is the specimen alluded to by Mr. Gray, in 

 the ' Synopsis of the British Museum,' p. 27 (ed. 42). 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Principles of Botany. By W. Hughes Willshire, M.D. London, 

 1840. 8vo, pp. 232. 



This work has been written with the immediate view of assisting 

 students of medicine in the acquisition of the amount of botany sup- 

 posed to be required by the various bodies before whom they present 

 themselves for their licence or diploma. It is perhaps to be regretted 

 that any work should be published professing to give the minimum 

 amount of the knowledge of a science required by the members of a 

 liberal profession, and especially of one which, in some points, is so in- 

 timately connected with medicine as that of botany. Of late years the 

 structure and fiuictions of all organic bodies have been shovni to obey 

 common laws, and a proper knowledge of physiology can only be 

 acquired by studying the organic kingdom as a whole. In this point 

 of view, structured and physiological botany ought to constitute a por- 

 tion of the fundamental studies of the medical student. We mention 



