202 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



substantial manner, leaving only a small entrance 

 beneath : in this manner keeping out all intruders, 

 and inclosing the aphides entirely for their own 

 benefit. The twig in question was near a yard high 

 from the ground, and, as if the colony retained some 

 recollection of their clever piece of work, exactly 

 the same thing was done on this currant-bush the 

 succeeding year. 



It might perhaps be argued that there was no 

 special design or intention in this, considering the 

 building instincts of ants ; but this year I observed 

 an incident relating to them that surprised me still 

 more : — In an inclosed orchard, at the root of a 

 small plum-tree partly decayed in the trunk, there 

 was a nest or colony of ants, wliich evidently mostly 

 depended upon the tree for provisions, as there 

 were abundance of aphides amongst the leaves. A 

 string of ants constantly passed up and down, the 

 ascending ones empty, and the descending ones so 

 inflated that their bodies appeared transparent. A 

 few sheep were then turned into the orchard to eat 

 down the grass. These animals sadly disturbed the j 

 poor ants by making a rubbing-post of the tree, [ 

 coating the bark with filaments of wool, which j 

 interfered with the passage of the ants, many of : 

 which were also probably destroyed, and but few ! 

 had the courage to venture up. Some time after 

 this I looked again, without seeing a single ant on I 

 the stem of the tree. Observing a fissure halfway 

 down, I noticed a large quantity of fine particles of 

 rotten wood, looking like snufi", had been thrown 

 out, and at the bottom of the cavity I perceived a 

 regiment of ants passing up and down. I then 

 found that in the fork of the tree, where a small 

 branch had been sawn oft" and got rotten at the 

 core, that they bad made a passage through, having 

 thrown out more particles of touchwood. They had 

 no visible exit at the bark of the tree, but made 

 their way to the nest through some unseen channel 

 in the root. During the recent rains the former 

 entrance to the nest has become filled up, and they 

 do not seem disposed to open it again : therefore^ 

 the only entrance to their home is some five feet up 

 in the tree, which they now avail themselves of in 

 perfect security and comfort, passing in and out in 

 great numbers. 



I state this as I have witnessed it, an existing 

 fact, without having the boldness to assert, that 

 finding the road outside the tree no longer safe or 

 practicable, they should cause their engineers to 

 make a survey, and who decided that the core of 

 the tree was sufiiciently soft and rotten to enable 

 them to work a tunnel through, which, from the 

 quantity of debris thrown out, must have cost a 

 great amount of labour. If so, it is very marvellous 

 that these little insects should be gifted with a 

 degree of sagacity, almost amounting to a reasoning 

 faculty, that many large quadrupeds do not possess. 



E. H. Weniiam. 



"MY GARDEN."* 



A" TOUR round my Garden " has already 

 appeared in French garb, but it was left to 

 an Englishman to work out the idea perfectly. 

 Shenstone the poet had first constructed a garden 

 in which new scenes of beauty were always meeting 

 the eye, and then had immortalized his attempts in 

 classic verse. But Mr. Smee has shown the world 

 what a treasure of picturesque beauty, of botanical, 

 zoological, geological, and general knowledge, may 

 be obtained in a plot of ground of less than eight 

 acres. In turning over the voluminous work be- 

 fore us, with its one thousand two hundred and fifty 

 woodcuts and plates, one is literally astonished at 

 the faculty which can produce so much out of what 

 appears so little. The estate in question is situate 

 in the hamlet of Wallington, on the banks of the 

 river Wandle, in Surrey. Its owner, and the author 

 of the present work, first introduces us to a brief 

 sketch of the parish in the Celtic, Roman, Anglo- 

 Saxon, and mediaeval periods; after which to a 

 period far older than any of these, when "the 

 Geology of my Garden" was commenced. The 

 geological sketch is ably and experientially done ; 

 for when Mr. Smee first entered upon the land of 

 his garden, he could not walk across it, on account 

 of its being so boggy. Since then drainage and 

 section-cutting has gone on, and as good a know- 

 ledge of geology obtained as pulling about a plot 

 of eight acres could bestow. Situated on the edge 

 of the London basin, all the lower tertiary beds 

 come up in the neighbourhood, although the fossils 

 are chiefly from the chalk. Many of these are 



Fig. 128. Fig. 129, Fio;. 130. 



Pseudo-diadema Polypnthccia Sptindylm 



variolare. (Cup-shaped Sponge). spinosus. 



figured, and amongst them are the above illus- 

 trations of the characteristic and commoner fossils. 

 The author states that his sou has extensively 

 examined the law of the deposit of silex on decom- 

 posing animal matter; and, as Mr. A. H. Smee 

 (the gentleman alluded to) has a fair reputation as 



• "My Gardea: its Plan and Culture: togetlier with a 

 general Description of its Geology, Botany, and Natural 

 History." By Alfred Smee, F.R.S. London : BeU & Daldy. 



