224 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



six inches below this opens into a small chamber 

 from which other chambers open out. In the 

 first they store the materials — leaves, petals, etc. — 

 of which when properly treated they make mush- 

 room-beds in the adjoining chambers, which are 

 two or three inches across. 



Another class of ant horticulturists are the species 

 of Camponotus and Aztec a of the Amazon region, 

 which construct hanging gardens on trees and shrubs. 

 These are of special interest to the botanist as well 

 as to the entomologist, for the plants they grow 

 are distinct from any that grow elsewhere. Either 

 they have become altered by ant-cultivation as 

 plants have become greatly modified in our gardens, 

 or they have retained ancestral forms whilst their 

 untended relations have become altered by natural 

 selection. Either way, the fact that they do differ 

 is a very interesting one. 



The ants carry up particles of earth and form 

 rounded masses of it on the branches. These 

 masses are riddled with passages and chambers, 

 which are strengthened by a lining of paper-like 

 material which the ants manufacture. When the 

 structure is completed the ants sow its surface with 

 the seeds of their special plants, brought pre- 

 sumably from an older garden. As soon as the seeds 

 sprout, the young plants are seen to be carefully 

 tended by the ants, which bring up fresh supplies 

 of soil to add to the circumference, and in this 

 way the garden grows in time to a considerable size. 

 The growing plants surround them with foliage 



