54 HARVESTING ANTS. 



made* in order that we might learn whether these 

 seeds can retain their vitality without sprouting in 

 moist soil ; but the general belief is that under these 

 conditions thej will do one of two things, they will 

 either grow or rot. Be this as it may, one of the 

 most curious points that we have learned about these 

 ants, is that they know how to preserve seeds intact, 

 even when within from one to three inches of the 

 surface of the ground, that is to say, at the actual 

 depth at which a gardener most frequently sows his 

 seeds, though if these very seeds are taken out of the 

 granary and sowed by hand, they will germinate in 

 the ordinary way. It is possible that this may be in 

 part due to the compact nature of the floors and 

 ceilings of the granaries, these excluding air in some 

 measure, though as moisture freely passes through 

 them, and there are always two or three open galleries 

 leading into tlie granaries, and which communicate 

 directly with the open air, I can scarcely accept this 

 explanation as complete. 



The seeds do occasionally sprout in tlie nest, though 

 it is extremely rare to find instances of this, and then 

 the ants nip off the little root, and carry each seed 

 out into the air and sun, exactly as the old writers 

 have described, and when the growth has been checked 

 and the seed malted by exposure, the}^ fetch them in 



* In order to try the experiment fairly, seeds taken from ants' nests, or 

 seeds of the same species as those which are habitually found in ants' nests, 

 should be placed at different depths in the earth and examined after the 

 lapse of six or eight mouths. 



Why it is that certain seeds resist the influences which destroy the vitality 

 of other seeds of closely allied species is another and a very curious but 

 coniplic£ited problem, the explanation of which may perhajjs lie in the 

 different chemical 2)roperties of the seeds in question, in the more or less 

 permeal'le character of their seed-coats, or their general texture. 



