32 CHAPTER IV. 



I suspect that the flavour of different species of 

 grasshoppers varies, and it would also be modified by 

 the food of the insects, for different travellers give a 

 different account of their quality as food." 



Mice and rats are fond of Carob beans. On the 

 road from Nice to Monaco you pass numbers of trees 

 provided with zinc collars to prevent vermin from 

 ascending. Small animals cannot climb over the 

 slippery surface of the metal. The farmer who first 

 adopted this method of outwitting the hungry rodent 

 was doubtless not aware that Dame Nature had 

 anticipated his patent. The honey in flowers has to 

 be carefully guarded against ants and other wingless 

 insects which do not carry pollen-dust from one flower 

 to another. These are unbidden guests at the banquet 

 which the flowers provide. 



One of the commonest ways of excluding these 

 unwelcome visitors is to place in their way, as they 

 ascend the stem, an unclimbable barrier. For instance, 

 a smooth collar is formed round the stem by the 

 connate bases of the leaves of Honeysuckle 

 (Lonicera) ; Yellowwort (Chlora) protects itself in the 

 same way. No ant, says Kerner, can scale this 

 plant ; when placed on the slippery, glaucous leaves 

 he invariably falls off, tumbling down the " couloir " 

 at the connate bases. Other plants fonn a slippery 

 barrier by the projecting base of a single leaf. 

 Melianthus (Fig. 13), a Cape plant common in gardens 

 here, uses its enormous stipules for the same purpose. 

 The sugary, vinous honey in the corolla of Melianthus 

 is worth protecting, for it is so abundant that a 

 quantity may be collected by merely shaking the 

 flowers. As I have mentioned this plant, I will add 



