SYMBIOSIS OF THE HEATHER. 



dear old Highland home. But they did not know 

 that they had broken off the strange association of 

 the Heather plants with their fungoid friends in their 

 native peat mould, and therefore the experiment neces- 

 sarily proved abortive, and the poor Highlanders had 

 to weep over the sad failure, naturally attributing it 

 to a sentimental cause." 



I submitted the reverend gentleman's statement 

 to the late Professor Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, 

 Pa., who kindly made the following comment thereon : 



"The Rev. Hugh Macmillan states that the roots 

 of a fungus prepares food for the Heather, and that 

 the Heather roots furnish dead material as food for 

 the fungus. I am asked whether this view is sound. 

 It has been found that many plants do live in com- 

 panionship in this way, and the term symbiosis has 

 been coined to represent the phenomena. But I have 

 not heard that the Heather is one of this class. The 

 article, on the whole, is written very intelligently, and 

 seems to have been founded upon well-recorded facts. 

 On my grounds the Heather thrives as in its native 

 wilds, but I have never suspected it of this habit. When 

 the frosts of winter have passed I shall have pleasure 

 in examining the roots." 



(Both of these articles appeared in "The Florists' 

 Exchange," a trade paper published in New York City.) 



Subsequently Professor Meehan furnished other 

 particulars concerning this matter, as follows : 



"The foreman in charge of the department hav- 

 ing oversight of these matters in the nursery of Thomas 

 Meehan & Sons places the following note on my 

 table. I have no doubt but that the doctrine of sym- 



63 



