68 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



bored holes in the wall, which looked as if some 

 one had amused himself by thrusting his finger into 

 the adobes while still fresh and soft. They had a 

 great enemy in the large house-spider, which springs 

 on its prey from concealment, but spins no web. I 

 had a tame spider for above a year, which used to 

 come every evening for its supper of cockroaches. 

 When I lighted my lamp, it would be waiting 

 behind and upon the open door for the cock- 

 roach, which dazzled by the glare- - I had no 

 difficulty in catching with my forceps. Sometimes, 

 after an hour or two, it would come back for a 

 second cockroach. Once, as I offered it the cock- 

 roach, I suddenly substituted my finger, which it 

 seized, but immediately released without wounding, 

 although this spider can bite severely when irritated. 

 Next to snakes and spiders come the ants, which 

 are so numerous, and so ubiquitous, that no one 

 escapes them. Their stings are of all degrees of 

 virulence, but rarely prove fatal. Many ants bite 

 fiercely, but not venomously. I could fill many 

 pages with my experiences of these pugnacious and 

 patriotic marauders, and of the nearly-related wasps. 

 I once sent an Indian up a tall laurel, a hundred 

 feet high, to gather the flowers. At half-way up 

 was the first branch, and a large paper wasps' nest 

 in the fork, hidden from view by the ample leaves 

 of an Arad. As he passed it, the angry insects 

 swarmed out, but he gained the top of the tree 

 without a sting, broke off some flowering branches 

 and threw them down. Unfortunately, there was 

 no friendly liana by which he could slide down or 

 pass to a neighbouring tree, and he must needs 

 descend the way he ascended. He did so, through 



