PART I. 



HARVESTING ANTS. 



It was in May, 1869, that Mr. Bentbam in his 

 presidential address to the Linnean Society called 

 attention to the want of reliable information as to 

 the existence of such subterranean accumulations of 

 seeds as are popularly supposed to account for the 

 sudden appearance on railway cuttings, gravel from 

 deep pits, and the like, of crops of weeds hitherto 

 unknown in a district. 



He suggested that it might repay the trouble if 

 some accurate observers were to take this in hand, 

 and investigate the matter both by examining samples 

 of undisturbed soil taken from various depths,^ — when, 

 if any seeds of moderate size were present and un- 

 decomposed, it would be tolerably easy to distinguish 

 them, — and also by ascertaining what means of 

 transport exist by which seeds may be scattered 

 over exposed surfaces, and thus explain the difficulty 

 without having recourse to liypothetical supplies of 

 sound though long-buried seeds.* 



* M. Kerner of Innspruck has lately adduced some facts bearing on the 

 question of the transport of seeds by the wind, having examined the collec- 

 tions of animal and vegetable substances found on the icy surfaces of glaciers 

 and the plants growing on moraines. Judging from the facts thus obtained, 

 he attributes but a small influence to this agency, as the specimens dis- 



B 2 



