A USEFUL FAMILY. 107 



going toward the scene of the " accident" was warned, so 

 that he went on the under side of the pole without seeing 

 the dead ant. 



A Useful Family. I. 



BY FRKDERICK W. BATCHELDER. 



Family traits betray themselves in the plant world as 

 surely as they do in the world of mankind. The orchid 

 family, which has formed the subject of the five preceding 

 articles, fe a family of aristocrats. This fact is proved 

 equally by its seclusiveness, its thievishness and its use- 

 lessness. The members of the family are too dainty to 

 stand on common ground with all sorts of plebians, and so 

 they seek the seclusion of hidden or unapproachable 

 places ; they have become too indolent of habit to appro- 

 priate at first hand the supplies offered them by mother 

 earth, and so they beg, borrow or steal nourishment from 

 other plants ; and they are absolutely of no use, so far as 

 the practical eye of man can penetrate, in the economy of 

 nature. Moreover, like other ultra-aristocratic families, 

 they are slaveholders, compelling their chattels, the in- 

 sects, to do even their love-making for them, a task which 

 costs many an insect his liberty and eventualh' his life. 



Yet this uncann}' family has held its own so well that in 

 number of species it is one of the largest in the vegetable 

 kingdom, not less than 5000 species being known. It has 

 counterbalanced, by means of special contrivances for cross- 

 fertilization, the tendency to die out for lack of stamina. 

 The seeds are destitute of endosperm, and consequently 

 the young plants have scant material to draw from in the 

 most critical stage of growth and need a nurse in the shape 

 of some protecting moss or other humble plant. But what 



