CHAPTER VI 

 ANIMALS 



I. Geographical Distribution of the Arrangements for Pollination, i. Onii- 

 'hophilous FloiL'Cis. Fritz Miillers aud Belt's discovery of liumming-bird flowers. 

 5un-birds as pollinators. Scott-Elliot's observations in South Africa. Ornithophily 

 n New Zealand. Feijoa, a plant with sweet petals. ii. Entoinoplnloiis Flowers. 

 different pollinators in lowlands and in mountain ranges. Hermann Miiller's observa- 

 ions. Decrease of entomophily in arctic countries. Insular floras and their pollinators, 

 .ong-tubed Lepidopteron-flowers characteristic of the tropics. Special adaptations. 

 I'ucca and its pollination by moths. Species of Bulbophyllum near Singapore. 2. Plants 

 md Ants. i. Ants as culth'ators of Fungi. Leaf-cutting ants in tropical America. 

 Their nests and fungus-beds. Other ants that cultivate fungi, ii. Myrmecophily. Belt's 

 liscovery of myrmecophilous plants. Acacia cornigera and A. sphaerocephala. Cecropia 

 denopus. Proof of the utility of ants as protectors of plants. Other plants with axial 

 labitations. Plants in which leaves produce the habitations. Extra-floral nectaries. 



The adaptations of plants to the animal kingdom form an extensive 

 nd largely investigated domain of oecology ; the geographical and 

 opographical aspects of the question have been, however, only slightly 

 onsidered, although there can be no doubt, and it has been actually 

 roved in certain cases, that differences in the animal world cause differ- 

 nces in the plant world. In the matter of the pollinating mechanisms 

 nd the relations between plants and ants a very promising start has 

 uite recently been made in the direction just mentioned. As regards 

 he mechanism for the dispersal of seed, a connexion between the 

 istribution of certain animals and plants has been affirmed in certain 

 idividual cases, but the question of the relations of size, form, taste, 

 olour, and other properties of fruits, to the requirements of the animals 

 iiat feed on them has not )'et been touched upon. The multifarious 

 rotective means of plants against destruction b\- animals, so far as they 

 lay characterize districts and their separate formations, have been at best 

 pproached quite hj-pothetically, except in the case of ants ; and the 

 ■henomena regarding them have hitherto only exceptionally formed the 

 ibject of serious scientific inquiry. Stahl's admirable work on ' Plants 

 nd Snails ' ' will, it is hoped, stimulate further research, which, if attention 

 e paid to geographical questions, will certainly lead to valuable results. 



' Pflanzen und Schnecken, Jena, 18SS. 



