INSECTS IN RELATION TO PLANTS 275 
currence when they bear no relation to the needs of ants. 
These interrelations of ants and plants are too often misinter- 
preted in popular and uncritical accounts of the subject. 
The interesting habits of the leaf-cutting ants in relation to 
the plants that they attack are described in a subsequent chap- 
ter, where will be found also an account of the harvesting ants. 
Fic. 268. 
Hydnophytum montanum. Section of pseudo-bulb, to show chambers inhabited by ants. 
One fourth natural size.—After Foret. 
The epiphytic plants Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum, of 
Java, form spongy bulb-like masses, the chambers of which 
are usually tenanted by ants, which rush forth when disturbed. 
These lumps (Fig. 268) are primarily water-reservoirs, but 
the ants utilize them by boring into them and from one cham- 
ber into another. In plants of the genus Humboldtia the ants 
can enter the hollow internodes through openings that already 
eXiSt- ; 
