62 AGRICULTURAL ANTS. 



ants were first noticed by INIr. Buckley,' and their 

 habits were some time afterwards described in more 

 detail by Dr. Lincecum,^ who maintained not only that 

 the ground was carefully cleared of all other species of 

 plants, but that this grass was intentionally cultivated 

 by the ants. ]\Ir. McCook,^ by whom this subject has 

 been recently studied, fully confirms Dr. Lincecum 

 that the disks are kept carefully clean, that the ant 

 rice alone is permitted to grow on them, and that the 

 produce of this crop is carefully harvested ; but he 

 thinks that the ant rice sows itself, and is not actually 

 cultivated by the ants. I have myself observed in 

 Algeria, that certain species of plants are allowed by the 

 ants to grow on their nests. 



' Proo. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphiat 1860. 



* Linnean Journal, 1861, p. 29. 



* The Nat. Hist, of the Agricultural Ants of Tefnas, p, 88. 



