30 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jannai? 13, 1876. 



no longer ' navvies,' bat become most tender and carefal 

 ' nurseB.' From the time that the city is supplied with new 

 abodes, and that the warmth of the snn is felt even beneath the 

 earth, the wonderful transformation begins within the ant- 

 cocoon which is to change its contents into a living creature. 

 Jnst when the mother bird is sitting on her eggs in her snug 

 nest, so as to give the warmth needed for their change into 

 young birds, the ant nurses begin their loving attentions to the 

 cocoons in their caves, which also require heat for their change 

 into living ants. More eager bustling begins among them, 

 which we cannot always see, since it goes on beneath ground. 

 When the sun shines out bright and warm, the cocoons in the 

 cells deep down below in the hive must be carried-up to nearer 

 the surface, where the warmth will reach them, and to effect 

 this the whole army of nurses is in commotion ; and if we can 

 manage to catch sight of them at such times we shall see each 

 little worker with a white oblong cocoon — not very unlike a 

 baby in swaddling clothes — held by the end in her* jaws or 

 mandibles which she carries before her, and which forms a load 

 almost as large as her own body, or even larger if it be the 

 cocoon of a future male or female. But the cocoons have, 

 perhaps, not long been placed in the warmer cells, or laid in 

 some passage or gallery near the opening of a shaft, when the 

 Bnn becomes obscured and a shower begins to fall. Now 

 although the white covering of the cocoons is a tolerably tough 

 and strong material, yet it would not do for them to be exposed 

 to both cold and damp, and the careful nurses have to set to 

 work to carry their charges all back to the lowermost cells 

 where the rain will not reach them — to bring them up again, it 

 may he, before the day is over, in case the sun should re-appear. 

 No end is there, in fact, to the tender care and indefatigable at- 

 tention of the nurses. It has been no doubt this running abont 

 with the white cocoons in their mandibles, or the finding of 

 them in their nests in the winter, which has led to the mistake 

 of supposing that ants stored-up grains of corn and other seeds, 

 which is certainly not the case with any ants known in Eng- 

 land, who pass the winter in a dormant state. Naturalists have, 

 however, lately become aware that a peculiar species of ant 

 found in some other countries does lay-up a store of food such 

 as corn and rice, and have named them ' harvesting ants.' 

 It may have been of such that King Solomon speaks, who was 

 BO knowing about plants and animals, where in his proverbs he 

 describes the ant as ' providing her meat in summer and getting 

 her food in the harvest;' while in another way his knowledge 

 was also most correct, since he speaks of the ant as ' having no 

 guide, overseer, or ruler,' for it is certain that all the operations 

 of the working ant, all her busy industry and anxiety for the 

 good of the community to which she belongs, arises from an 

 impulse within the little creature forming part of her nature, 

 which is very like the love of duty in a human being. It does 

 not surprise us to find other animals taking tender care of their 

 young, and we admire the devotion and self-denial which they 

 often show towards them, but with the ant-nurses it is the 

 young of others whom they tend, and the good of the whole of 

 their fellow citizens which is the aim of their labour. They 

 seem to have the feeling which we call love of our country, or 

 national honour and pride. They are not slaves by any means, 

 for no one orders or exercises authority over them — they are 

 rather willing and devoted servants to the general good. The 

 powers, feelings, and affections of ants being eo many and so 

 curious, it has been said that the brain of the ant, perhaps no 

 larger than a fine grain of sand, miist be the most wonderful 

 particle of matter in the world. 



" But though our ants do not store-up food nor eat in the 

 winter, they have at other times good appetites, and within our 

 garden walls an abundant supply of food is found, suited to the 

 taste and fitted for the nourishment of the ant colonies. They 

 like most kinds of fruits, sweet roots, and even the flesh of 

 slugs and snails. A dead mouse or sparrow is soon attacked 

 and their bones picked clean by hungry ants. We know too 

 well how a fallen Pear or Apple is often found to be hoUowed- 

 out by ants, and how our Peaches and Nectarines ate attacked 

 by them and riddled with holes. Nothing in fact that is sweet 

 comes amiss to them, and portions of food are at all times 

 carried down by the workers to the grubs or larvfe hatched 

 from the eggs, or to the young ants which have just left the 

 cocoons. 'Their strong jaws or mandibles enable them to bite 

 solid food and carry it in their mouths, while they have also a 

 kind of hollow tongue like a scoop which can be used for lap- 

 ping-up liquids, and is perhaps employed for taking home some 

 of the sweet juices of fruit. We know how wonderful is some- 

 times the persistent indnstry and determination of the little 

 creatures in getting at the kinds of food they like best. To an 

 ant-city at one side of our garden, for instance, there is carried 

 somehow in August the perfume of the ripening Peaches on 

 the wall at the opposite side. We cannot detect the fragrant 



* "We may say her, eince it has been discoTcred that the working ants are 

 really females, though imperfectly formed ones, so that they do not produce 



odour BO far off ourselves, but the sensitive nerves of the tiny 

 ants must discover it in the air. It may, to be sure, be possible 

 that some adventurous ant traveller has penetrated across the 

 vast (to them) extent of land which stretches between their 

 hive and the wall where hang the downy Peaches that are 

 getting softer and sweeter every day, and that he has journeyed 

 back to tell his fellow citizens what he has discovered, and has 

 induced a large party to set off and make a causeway across the 

 paths and beds, and form tunnels under the turf borders to 

 where the Peaches can be reached by climbing the wall. We 

 can easily see that a long procession of them is constantly doing 

 this, though we know not exactly how they have first been in- 

 duced to undertake such a distant exploration. But there can 

 be no doubt that ants have wonderful ways of communicating 

 with each other, nor that they have something like a language 

 of their own. If we watch a party going to and fro across a 

 path, we soon observe that they occasionally stop as they pass 

 each other, touch one another with their feelers or antennse, 

 and then continue their route, much as we do ourselves when 

 we meet a friend and have a chat with him in the street. Na- 

 turalists who have observed the ways of ants very carefully &ni 

 constantly have seen that when any calamity has occurred in 

 the colony, the workers will run about and tell the news to 

 those at a distance with a touch of their feelers, and that then 

 all who are so warned will hurry to the scene of the disaster in 

 order to set about repairing it. Perhaps even sounds are 

 emitted by ants, and many other insects, which are too fine 

 and high-pitched for our ears to hear, as the elephant who hears 

 the deep notes of an organ or drum cannot hear the high and 

 shrill notes of a pipe or flute. There have been cases where 

 ants seem to have got scent of some store of honey, or treacle, 

 or sweet preserve within a house, and have journeyed a long 

 distance in great numbers to reach it, even making their way 

 down chimneys to get to the luscious store, but our garden ants 

 are generally contented with what they can find without doors." 

 This charming book is beautifully and liberally illustrated 

 with coloured plates and numerous woodcuts remarkably well 

 executed, and we can recommend it as a very nsefnl, instruc- 

 tive, and entertaining companion to everybody who has a 

 garden ; but ! Mrs. Wood, where is the index? 



HOOPER & CO.'S TRELLISES. 

 We have seen some of these new plant trellises, and Messrs. 

 Hooper are quite justified in saying that they are unique in 

 appearance, elegant in finish, and hght. They have the ad- 

 vantage over other trellises that they are without sharp angles. 



Fig. 8. Fig. 9. 



SO that that the training of plants gracefully is facilitated. 

 Fig. 8 is for any plant requiring training. Fig. 9 is specially 

 adapted for Ivy and other plants of similar habit. 



OUE BOEDER FLOWERS— NIGHTSHADES. 



I THixK it would be difficult to find a more beautiful family 

 of plants than the Nightshades, especially that section now 

 under notice. For decorative purposes, for pot culture, also 

 for beds, borders, or rockwork, thoNierembergias are admirably 

 adapted. They are said by some to be hardy, but in the 

 localities where I have cultivated them I have had to treat 

 Nierembergia gracilis as half-hardy, yet it is easily preserved 

 through the winter in any cool and moderately dry structure 

 from which frost is excluded. Cuttings root freely in well- 

 drained pots and very sandy soil. If inserted in the summer 

 and autumn and placed in a cold pit they may be potted-off 

 in spring, and grown-on in pots, or they may be planted where 

 required. This is a charming plant for edgings, vases, or 

 baskets ; it is appreciated wherever it is met with on acconnt 

 of its graceful habit and lovely flowers. 



N. calycina is a neat and attractive plant, but is not 

 nearly so well Imown nor so freely cultivated as it ought to 



