Okay, just to make this absolutely crystal as to what's going on ... here's an excerpt **pre-this-PR**, as per this doc-string ...

```
>>> import iris
>>> import iris.analysis
>>> cube = iris.load_cube(iris.sample_data_path('ostia_monthly.nc'))
>>> print cube
surface_temperature / (K)           (time: 54; latitude: 18; longitude: 432)
     Dimension coordinates:
          time                           x             -              -
          latitude                       -             x              -
          longitude                      -             -              x
     Auxiliary coordinates:
          forecast_reference_time        x             -              -
     Scalar coordinates:
          forecast_period: 0 hours
     Attributes:
          Conventions: CF-1.5
          STASH: m01s00i024
          history: Mean of surface_temperature aggregated over month, year
     Cell methods:
          mean: month, year
>>> print cube.attributes['history']
10/08/12 13:06:41 Iris: Mean of surface_temperature aggregated over month, year
>>> 
>>> mean = cube.collapsed('longitude', iris.analysis.MEAN)
>>> print mean
surface_temperature / (K)           (time: 54; latitude: 18)
     Dimension coordinates:
          time                           x             -
          latitude                       -             x
     Auxiliary coordinates:
          forecast_reference_time        x             -
     Scalar coordinates:
          forecast_period: 0 hours
          longitude: 180.0 degrees, bound=(0.0, 360.0) degrees
     Attributes:
          Conventions: CF-1.5
          STASH: m01s00i024
          history: Mean of surface_temperature aggregated over month, year
Mean of surface_temperature...
     Cell methods:
          mean: month, year
          mean: longitude
>>> print mean.attributes['history']
10/08/12 13:06:41 Iris: Mean of surface_temperature aggregated over month, year
14/05/13 13:42:23 Iris: Mean of surface_temperature over longitude
>>> 
```

The ```over longitude``` was actually there. Remember that when printing a cube, long lines are automatically snipped. Hence the ```over longitude``` in the doc-string appears missing.

Does this help clarify the situation @bblay ?