June IS. 1903 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



149 



within three or four inches of the bot- 

 tom of the same. Our heating pipes are 

 hot water and two feet below the bench. 

 In fact, the line Mrs. Lawson grow in 

 a solid bed. This "rower thought il 

 paid better to force, claiming to get 

 quantity. For my part. 1 like to see 

 them fullj developed. With such evi- 

 dence before us it seems to me that the 

 correct thing would be I" pui the ther- 

 mometer in the soil and read the tem- 

 perature from there. I am satisfied that 

 such a proceeding would show a won- 

 derful range of temperature in the dif- 

 ferent, "rowers' houses. T. H. \V. 



ANTS IN RELATION TO PLANTS. 



It is very commonly supposed that ants 

 are injurious to cultivated plants. This 

 belief appears to be due to the very gen- 

 eral occurrence of ants on fruit trees and, 

 other plants, rendering it almost impos- 

 sible to pluck a twig from some trees 

 without being inconvenienced by the ants. 

 It is true that ants are found in enor- 

 mous numbers on some plants, and that 

 they frequently make nests at the roots, 

 but it has never yet been definitely 

 proved that they do any direct damage 

 to the plants. The ants usually visit the 

 tree or plant for a particular purpose, 

 some instances of which will be cited. 



Ants have frequently been recorded as 

 being closely associated with insects 

 known as ' ' green fly, ' ' or aphis 

 (aphides), visiting them to obtain their 

 sweet secretion, commonly known as 

 "honey dew." Cases are on record 

 where the ants undoubtedly cared for 

 the green fly, and made use of them in 

 a manner comparable to man's treat- 

 ment of such domestic animals as the 

 cow. 



Other insects, and notably the scale in- 

 sects and mealy bugs, also excrete a 

 sweet liquid which ants appear to like. 

 Some species of these pests have a char- 

 acteristic mealy covering, to which they 

 owe their popular names. This covering 

 the ants carry away, often completely 

 stripping the insects. 



Plants infested with scale insects or 

 mealy bugs frequently swarm with ants, 

 which may be observed continually going 

 from one insect to another in search of 

 food. Sometimes the ants erect shel- 

 ters over the scale insects, and sheltered 

 in this way from enemies the mealy 

 bugs live in safety, repaying the ants 

 for their care by supplies of honey dew. 

 This mutual arrangement between the 

 ants and the mealy bugs may lead indi- 

 rectly to injury to the plant. Ants also 

 make galleries up the stems of plants, 

 under cover of which they ascend and 

 in which scale insects may sometimes be 

 found. 



In all these cases the ants themselves 

 do not appear to harm the plants. Any 

 injury is, in all likelihood, due to the 

 scale insects, and the ants must be ac- 

 quitted of direct damage. It must be 

 noted, however, that indirectly harm may 

 at times result from their fostering care 

 of the really injurious creatures — the 

 scale insects and mealy bugs. Similarly, 

 when ants infest the roots of plants, they 

 are, in the majority of cases, to be found 

 in association with scale insects. There 

 is some reason to believe that, as men- 

 tioned above, ants may protect the scale 

 insects from enemies, and may perhaps 

 even carry the eggs or young insects to 

 suitable places on the plants, and thus 

 aid in distributing the scale insects. In 



cases, however, where ants have been 

 prevented from visiting a plant infested 

 with scale insects, there is no evidence 

 to hand showing a consequent diminu- 

 tion in the numbers of the scale insects, 

 and no g 1 results have as yet been ob- 

 tained by destroying the ants in prefer- 

 ence to the scale insects. On the other 

 hand, many cases of ants infesting 

 plants are due solely to the presence of 

 the scale insects or mealy bugs. The dam- 

 age d.me by the latter is attributed to 

 the former, but is easily remedied by 

 destroying the scale insects or mealy 

 hugs, and leaving the ants unmolested. 



Many plants have what are known as 

 extra-floral nectaries, which are nectar- 

 excreting glands situated on other parts 

 of the plant than the flowers. The cas- 

 tor-oil plant is an example of this kind. 



bodies, with a crater-like depression at 

 the top, usually moist with the excreted 

 sugar) Bolution. These nectaries are 

 visited abundantly by ants, which drink 

 the sweet liquid. A plant which attracts 

 a targe number of ants to itself may find 

 them of direct value, for they often ap- 



pear to do g I service in warding off 



caterpillars and other unwelcome visit- 

 ors. It must not be supposed that it is 

 necessarily a special, or, as some might 

 urge, an intelligent adaptation on the 

 part of the plant to entice the ants to 

 itself. The nectaries play their own part 

 in the life-history of the plant, and the 

 ants merely take an advantage of them, 

 with sometimes beneficial results to the 

 plant. 



On the whole, then, it would appear 

 that the ants so commonly to be found 

 on plants should not be looked upon in 

 the first instance, at all events, as actual 

 pests. They often indicate that a real 

 pest, such as green fly, scale insects, or 



mealy bug, is present. At times they 

 may increase to some degree the dam- 

 age done by this pest. On the other hand, 

 I hey may be visiting the plant on ac- 

 count of other inducements, and their 

 presence maj even be of direct service 

 in warding off the attacks of harmful 



neat Ilies. 



For the destruction of ants, the fumes 

 of burning sulphur driven into the nests, 

 iir a small quantity of cotton wool soaked 

 with bisulphide of earbon appear to be 

 convenient and effective remedies. 



J. J. Willis, in Gardeners' Magazine. 



Newton, Mass. Henry Mansfield, 

 ic oldest florist hen-, who retired a 

 nude of years ago, is in California to 



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Is a book of 224 large pat 

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William Scott 



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