HORTICULTURISTS 213 



vessels ; others are gathered by climbing the plant 

 and wresting off the seed-vessels. 



Their store-houses, being underground, appear to 

 be the worst possible places in which to store grain 

 for future use, for they offer the conditions of damp, 

 warmth, and darkness favourable to germination and 

 growth. That they are able to delay this process 

 for some time is evident by the condition in which 

 the seeds have been found by exploring the nest ; 

 also by the fact that if the ants are prevented having 

 access to their store-houses, the seeds at once begin 

 to germinate. 



When they wish to make use of their hoard they 

 allow a portion to germinate, thus setting up the 

 vital chemistry by which the contained starch is 

 converted into sugar and made available for food. 

 But if growth were allowed to follow upon germina- 

 tion, the sugar would be used up for the nourish- 

 ment of the seedling plant. So they do what the 

 maltster does with his germinated barley at this 

 stage — he stops further change by killing the young 

 plants. The ants accomplish this by biting off the 

 radicle and the sprouting stem, and then drying 

 their malts in the sun. 



But the art of the maltster does not fall properly 

 under the head of horticulture, though we hope 

 it will be seen in what follows that, in the case of 

 the ants, it is a related industry. The discovery 

 of these Harvesting Ants of Europe was, however, 

 anticipated by Lincecum observing similar habits 

 in an American Ant, which was afterwards studied 



