236 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



The cutting ants often assist each other. I saw one which fell with a hack 

 berry, at the vertical place before named. The berry got loose from him, and 

 instead of shouldering it again, he tried to drag it along, but was unable to 

 pull it up the perpendicular. Many passed him and gave the cold shoulder ; 

 finally a kind ant came and pushed. By shoving and pulling the two succeeded 

 in getting the berry to the top, when the assister immediately left, and started 

 down the hill. They live on both animal and vegetable [food. I have seen 

 them carrying both worms and bugs. Whole beetles and numerous elytra 

 have been found in their cells, but nothing indicating that they lay up large 

 stores of food, like some of the East India ants, which have been seen to fetch 

 their stores of corn to the surface to dry after heavy rains. The common 

 tumble bug, (Canthon lesvis,) in rolling his ball, sometimes heedlessly backs up 

 over a nest of the cutting ants, and falls a victim, being overcome by numbers. 

 Once I saw a very large one roll his ball into their midst, when he was fiercely 

 attacked by the multitude. At first he stuck his nose in the sand, or rather 

 between his forelegs, but the bites behind were so severe that he roused and 

 flew in circles, finally alighting near me, which was no sooner done than an 

 ant who had accompanied the flight, jumped to the ground, for a moment 

 looked bewildered, then ran for home, it may be, to tell of his wonderful ride on 

 the big bug. 



The damage which these ants do, is great, by destroying trees and vegeta- 

 bles. I know of one family who are about to leave a beautiful situation near a 

 fine spring, because the cutting ants have nearly killed their fruit trees and 

 ornamental shrubbery, especially roses, for which they have a peculiar fond- 

 ness. They have been known to strip a fruit tree of its leaves in a single 

 night. In some sections these ants prevent the cultivation of fruit. Thou- 

 sands of dollars have been uselessly spent in attempts to kill them by blowing 

 noxious gasses into their dens, or by placing poisons at the doorways of their 

 dwellings. A knowledge of the habits and abodes of these insects show the 

 futility of such attempts ; the fact is, but few of these can be reached by gas, 

 let the bellows blow ever so hard, nor can many be killed by poison, even if 

 the most deadly be placed within their doorways, for as soon as they discover 

 harm, they form a new entrance. The only effectual method of destroying 

 them is to dig, and kill the females and young, when the neuters will soon 

 perish. This is so expensive that it will only be resorted to near a garden or 

 dwelling, and as the cutting ants are scattered through western and central 

 Texas, they probably never will be exterminated by man. 



Contributions to the Carboniferous Flora of the United States. 



BY HORATIO C. WOOD, JR. 



Calamites Suckow. 



C. bicostatus nobis. Stem slender, bicostate, with distant articula- 

 tions ; ribs undulate, double, a very narrow, alternating with a broader one ; 

 tubercles obsolete. The distant articulations and the double, undulate ribs 

 characterize this as a very distinct species. 



Annularia Sternb. 



A. dubi a nobis. 



Syn. Bechera dubia Stern. Vers. vol. i. p. 30, t. 51 fig. 3, 1821. Annularia 

 minula Brong. Prod. p. 155. 



A. stellata nobis. 



Syn. Casuarinites stellatus Schloth. Flora der Vorwelt, t. i. fig. 4, 1804, ejus- 

 dem, Nacht. Petref. 1822. Bornia stellata Sternb. Vers. i. p. 28. Annularia 

 longifolia Brongt. Prod. 1828. Asterophyllites eqaisetiformis Lind. et Hutton, 

 Foss. Flora, vol. ii. t. 124. 



[June, 



