70 MR J. G. GOODCHILD ON 
Ants, in climbing some of these plants in search of nectar, 
perforate the outer part of the stem with their sharp-pointed 
claws. Immediately tiny drops of the milky fluid exude, 
from which the ant tries to free its claws, but always with 
the result that the more it stirs the faster it sticks; and 
eventually it is made as fast to the plant as if it had been 
purposely stuck on with seccotine. 
Ants, too, are afraid to take their walks abroad before the 
dew has dried up. If they ventured out they could not get 
far without risk of being drowned. Plants, ever on the 
watch to circumvent their insect foes, have found this fact 
out long ago; and some of them take advantage of it by 
opening their corollas to invite bees to come to fertilise them 
between the time when the bees are first on the wing and 
the time when the dew has dried up. Then these plants 
shut up, unless the important business of the day has been 
done. It would be interesting to know what British flowers 
have adopted this practice. Miss J. L. Scott has kindly 
furnished me with a list of mid-European plants which have 
acquired this habit; but we still need further observation 
upon our own. I would suggest this as a subject worthy of 
the careful attention of our Natural History Societies in 
general. ; 
Other plants, again, not having been able to ward off the 
attacks of marauding ants in any other way, have taken to 
setting out little drops of nectar on their stems below the 
flowering part. Ants climb wp, find what they were in 
search of, take their fill, and go away contented. 
In other cases, as in that of one of the European 
Serratulas and some few other plants, ants serve a purpose 
useful to the plants. The Serratula referred to is liable 
to the attacks of a flying beetle, which descends upon the 
flowers just before they open out and eats away the delicate 
and juicy half-developed florets. The case seems to have 
been a bad one for the plant, for it has found it advisable 
to encourage the visits of a peculiarly warlike ant at this 
eritical period. To this end the pointed bracts on the lower 
part of the capitulum are provided with a few tempting 
drops of nectar for the occasion. The ants referred to 
make their way up to the feast set out for the time being 
