The Web of Life 113 



it has been proved experimentally that a tree, nor- 

 mally "ant-loving," can flourish without its army, 

 and that the army can flourish without its rations 

 from the tree ! 



In our judgment, then, it seems time to abandon 

 the idea that the peculiarities of myrmecophilous 

 plants have any causal relation to the ants which find 

 habitual shelter there. But it is always extreme to 

 empty out the baby with the bath. Ants are quick to 

 profit by experience along certain lines; they are 

 intelligent as well as instinctive ; they show consider- 

 able plasticity of behavior; and there is nothing 

 improbable in the view that they have thoroughly 

 learned how to make the most of the acacias. Nor is 

 it at all improbable that the acacias are in some places 

 and times all the better for this linkage which has tied 

 them up in the bundle of life with aggressive ants of 

 a species that does the tree no harm. This is the grain 

 of truth in the theory of myrmecophily, and it is not 

 a microscopically minute grain ! 



ANOTHER CORNER OF THE WEB OF LIFE 



The idea of the Web of Life is so fundamental to 

 a true appreciation of Animate Nature that we ven- 

 ture to give another illustration which has been dis- 

 covered very recently by Dr. N. A. Kemner. The 

 story comes from Java, a land of many marvels — 

 where bamboos grow so quickly (over thirty feet in 

 fifteen days) that even the veracious observer can 

 see them growing ; a land where "flying frogs" para- 

 chute from branch to branch and deposit their eggs 



