THE HARVESTING ANTS. 



27 



ing them when damp with the rain to the surface, spreading them in 

 the sun and then carrying them back to the granaries. Some of the 

 seeds sprout, nevertheless, either in the nests or on the kitchen middens. 

 ''' As the ants often travel some distance from their nest in search of 

 food, they may certainly be said to be, in a limited sense, agents in the 



FIG. 153. Xest of Mcssor pergaiulei in the Arizona desert, showing circle of chafl. 



( Original. ) 



dispersal of seeds, for they not un frequently drop seeds by the way. 

 which they fail to find again, and also among the refuse matter which 

 forms the kitchen midden in front of their entrances, a few sound 

 seeds are often present, and these in many instances grow up and form 

 a little colony of strange plants. This presence of seedlings foreign 

 to the wild grounds in which the nest is usually placed, is quite a fea- 

 ture where there are old established colonies of Atta barbara, where 

 young plants of fumitory, chickweed, cranesbill, Arabis Thalcana, etc., 

 may be seen on or near the rubbish heap. . . . One can imagine cases 

 in which the ants during the lapse of long periods of time might pass 

 the seeds of plants from colony to colony, until after a journey of many 

 stages, the descendants of the ant-borne seedlings might find them- 



