Thistles and Nettles 341 



pie tubes they will gormandize the sweets there, 

 so that the robbed florets will have no inducement 

 to offer to butterfly or bee, and it is extremely 

 unlikely that an ant will pay for her refreshments 

 by carrying the pollen where it ought to go, to 

 another flower of the same species. 



So there has been a warfare, summer after sum- 

 mer, for no one knows how many years, between 

 the ants, which want to get into the purple tubes, 

 and the thistle-plants which want to keep them 

 out. 



The devices of the thistle to this end are many 

 and wonderful. Beginning at the ground (as the 

 ant does), we find that the stem of the plant is 

 clothed all the way up with fuzz or hairs. This 

 makes things unpleasant for the crawler, for " noth- 

 ing," says Sir John Lubbock, " bothers ants like 

 hairs." In some varieties of thistle the stem looks 

 as if it had been wound around and around with 

 spider-webs, and often these are gummy, and likely 

 to catch the crawling insect as it tries to work its 

 way up. 



Along the stem, here and there, are leaves. 

 These in many varieties have horny edges which 

 roll backward, making a barrier which the ant 

 finds it very difficult to surmount. The under 



