DISPERSAL BY ANIMALS 13 
borders. The Sun Spurge is another example. ‘Tle 
seeds of both species can be harvested in thousands 
from waste or badly cultivated 
land, and if we examine them 
we shall find that they are 
provided with a small but con- 
spicuous fleshy knob, and this 
is the bait that attracts the ants. 
If we do not succeed in 
catching them in the act, all 
that is necessary is to take a 
few seeds and lay them on the Fic. 24.—Seed of— 
: 1, The PettySpurge. x15, 
ground where they are foraging, 2, The Sun Spurge. x6. 
and we shall soon see what thie DAE. 
they do. 
Some of them will perhaps nibble at the bait 
and then run off, another will seize one in its jaws and 
retire into a little depression in the soil in order to 
enjoy a meal, leaving the seed behind when it has had 
enough: others will grip a seed apiece firmly by the 
bait and disappear with it into the nest. 
It is difficult to be quite sure about what happens 
in the last case, but it is at any rate more than probable 
that the bait is nibbled away inside the nest, and that 
the seed is brought out again afterwards and left 
somewhere on the soil in the near neighbourhood. 
I want to draw particular attention to the part 
played by the ants in the matter of seed-dispersal, 
more especially because comparatively little has as 
yet been found out about it in this country, and it is 
not very difficult to discover a great deal more; such 
knowledge would be extremely useful in helping 
agriculturists as well as Botanists to solve some of 
their many problems. 

