( J 54 ) 



hills in the vicinity of Semarang, i.e. on the last ofF-shoots of the 

 Oengaran moimtain, the numeroas Mangif era's and Tectonas are 

 often completely draped with these epiphytes. Tliey are also found 

 in thousands in the teak woods of Mankang, Djerakah, Tempoeran 

 and Kedoeng Djattie. As long as three years ago when we first 

 found these plants in the wild state, in the forest of Tempoeran, 

 we noticed that trees over-gro\vn by these Disclddia species, were- 

 full of a small dark-colonred species of ant. At the slightest touch 

 the insects swarm over the trunk and the plants growing on it, and, 

 in spite of their small size they can bite very unpleasantly. Since 

 then we have noticed, that in numerous places, where the Dischidia's 

 occur abundantly, the same species of ant also inhabits the trees in 

 large numbers. In the neighbourhood of Kediri, a small town at a 

 distance of a day's journey from Semarang, one of us also saw 

 these plants in large numbers in the tops of the shade-trees of a 

 coffee plantation. Attention was drawn to their presence by the fact 

 that on a certain spot the coiTee trees were badly attacked by a 

 small species of ant, which destroyed the bark and built channels 

 within it, so that a large numbei- of coffee trees died off. It was 

 found to be the species of ant already mentioned in the title. That 

 there was a connexion between the life of the three above-mentioned 

 species of Disclddia and the sjiecies of ant had been clear to us 

 for a long time, but we were only able to discover the nature of 

 this connexion in the last two rain monsoons. 



Some time ago there appeared a [)aper by Ridley on symbiosis 

 between plants and ants, in which this investigator states that there 

 can be no question of a true symbiosis between ants and Disclddia 

 Rafjiesiana. Possibly his opinion might have been different, had he 

 known the connexion which exists between these ants and the seed- 

 lings, although we consider that as yet there is not sufficient evidence 

 to assume the existence of symbiosis. We propose to publish our 

 own results on this point in a detailed paper, but as the time we 

 have at our disposal for research, is limited and the portion of the 

 work mentioned in the title of the present paper, forms a rounded 

 off whole, we here give a brief survey of the facts we have observed. 



The seeds of Disclddia Rafjiesiana and nummidaria agree comple- 

 tely as to shape (we are not yet acquainted with those of D. collyris), 

 but those of D. Rafjiesidna are about IVa times as large as those 

 of D. nummidaria. Both have at one end a fine pappus of long 

 white hairs. The seeds are compressed laterally and have on their 

 ■narrow side and opposite the pappus, a thiu white crest, which 

 contrasts strongly with the testa, which is dark brown or almost 



