102 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and shelter, will inhabit plants to the partial exclusion of destruc- 

 tive insects and larger foraging animals. Interesting as all this 

 is, it is not the time and place to go into the details of how the 

 ant-fostering plants have their nectar glands upon stems or leaf, 

 rich soft hairs in tufts for food, and homes provided in hollows 

 and chambers. There is still a more intimate association of ter- 

 mites with some of the toadstool-like plants, where the ants foster 

 the fungi and seem to understand some of the essentials of veri- 

 table gardening in miniature form. 



The most familiar branch of phytoecologj, as it concerns adapta- 

 tions for insect visitations, is that which relates to the production 

 of seed. Floral structures, so wonderfully varied in form and 

 color and withal attractive to every lover of the beautiful, are 

 familiar to all, and it only needs to be said in passing that these 

 infinite forms are for the same end — namely, the union of the 

 seed germs, if they may be so styled, of different and often widely 

 separated blossoms. 



Sweetness and beauty are not the invariable rule with insect- 

 visited blossoms, for in the long ages that have elapsed during 

 which these adaptations have come about some plants have estab- 

 lished an unwritten agreement between beetles and bugs with un- 

 savory tastes. Thus there are the " carrion flow^ers," so called 

 because of their fetid odor, designed for the sense organs of car- 

 rion insects. The " stink-horn " fungi have their offensive spores 

 distributed by a similar set of carrion carriers. 



Water and wind claim a share of the species, but here adapta- 

 tion to the method of fertilization is as fully realized as when 

 insects participate, and the uselessness of showy petals and fan- 

 tastic forms is emphasized by their absence. 



Coming now to the fruits of plants, it is again seen that plants 

 have adapted their offspring, the seed, to the surrounding condi- 

 tions, not forgetting the wind, the waves, and the tastes and the 

 exterior of passing animals. The breezes carry up and hurl along 

 the light wing-possessed seeds, and the river and ocean bear these 

 and many others onward to a distant land, while by grappling hooks 

 many kinds cling to the hair of animals, or, provided with a pleas- 

 ing pulp, are carried willingly by birds and other creatures. In 

 short, the devices for seed dispersion are multitudinous, and they 

 provide a large chapter in that branch of botany now styled phyto- 

 ecology. 



How different is the old field botany from the new! Then 

 there was the collector of plants and classifier of his finds, and an 

 arranger of all he could get by exchange or otherwise. His suc- 

 cess was measured by the size of his herbarium and his stock in 



