CHAPTER XXII 

 PLANTS AND ANTS 



Meaning of Plant Life— Captive and domesticated germs— Solomon's 

 observations denied by Buffon but confirmed by recent writers — 

 Ants as keepers and germinators of corn — Ant fields— Ants growing 

 mushrooms— Leaf-cutting ants— Plants which are guarded by insects 

 —The African bush— Ants boarded by Acacias and by Imbauba 

 trees — Ants kept in China and Italy — Cockchafer v. ant — Scale 

 insects — A fungus which catches worms. 



THE world of plants supports all animal life, from the 

 mite to the elephant. There are most intricate rela- 

 tions between one form of life and another. Thus a 

 Rose tree attacked by an aphis or green-fly may be succoured 

 by the slim ichneumon, or other thin-waisted fly, which 

 lays its egg in that of the aphis. Another insect, say a 

 spider, catches the ichneumon. A starling may eat the 

 spider, and be itself eaten by an owl. 



So that ichneumon and starling are friends to the Rose, 

 whilst the other insect, the spider, and the owl are enemies. 

 Yet both the starling and the spider are probably, almost 

 certainly on the whole, friends of the Rose, although they 

 are unfriendly in this special case. 



With all other similar series or changes the final term 

 is either a bird or animal of prey or mankind. 



Until we introduce the idea of man as the culminating 

 point of the series, the whole of it seems to be without any 

 special meaning or advantage. 



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