370 Bibliographical Notices. 
to be considered as a useful remedy in certain cases, and is also used, 
like the Amanita of the Kamtschadales, to produce a certain amount 
of jollification. Dr. Bennett describes a symposium of this kind in 
the island of Tongatabu; and from his account of the preliminary 
operations, in which a general chewing of the Kava was performed 
by the company éefore its infusion with water to make the cheering 
beverage, it would appear to be necessary that the partakers of this 
entertainment should possess almost as little squeamishness as the 
inferior classes of Kamtschadales. 
We must now conclude our notice of Dr. Bennett’s ‘ Gatherings.’ 
We trust that we have said sufficient to indicate that his volume 
contains much valuable and interesting matter. Although the style 
in which it is written is somewhat discursive, the’general perform- 
ance of the work is satisfactory, and it may be perused with much 
advantage both by the general reader and the scientific naturalist. 
The illustrations consist of several plates, some of them coloured, 
representing the more interesting of the objects referred to, and of 
numerous woodcuts scattered through the text. 
The Honey-Bee ; its Natural History, Habits, Anatomy, and Mi- 
croscopical Beauties. By James SaMvUELSON, assisted by J. 
Braxton Hicks, M.D., F.L.S. With tinted Illustrations. 12mo. 
London, Van Voorst, 1860. 
Under the title of ‘Humble Creatures,’ Mr. Samuelson appears to 
propose bringing before the public a series of notices of the structure 
and habits of some of the lower animals; and the present volume is 
the second effort he has made towards the accomplishment of this 
design. His object, as explained by himself, is to show, from the 
minute examination of some of those creatures which are usually 
regarded as insignificant or even contemptible by the world at large, 
how even these have been cared for by the Creator, how beautifully 
their structure is adapted to all the purposes which they are intended 
to fulfil i Nature, and how important they may be in the ceeconomy 
of the world. Towards the attainment of this laudable object he 
made a first essay some years ago, when he published the histories 
of “The Earthworm and the Housefly,”’ and we are glad to see, by an 
advertisement in his new volume, that its predecessor has met with 
sufficient success to justify the production of a second edition. In 
selecting the Honey-Bee for his second essay, he has perhaps, de- 
parted a little from the precise line which he might have been ex- 
pected to follow; as the Bee is certainly not one of those “ humble 
creatures’ which are regarded with contempt or considered unim- 
portant by even the most superficial ; and so much has been written 
upon this insect and its wonderful instincts, that most people would 
be ready to admit its history to be a subject of interest. However, 
it is probably the general interest taken in the Bee that has induced 
our author to make it the subject of his present volume; and, con- 
sidering the new and remarkable facts which have lately been dis- 
covered in the history of this insect, and which have scarcely yet 
