50 



CHAPTEK III. 



ON THE RELATION OF ANTS TO PLANTS. 



IT is now generally admitted that the form and colour, 

 the scent and honey of flowers, are mainly due to the 

 unconscious agency of insects, and especially of bees. 

 Ants have not exercised so great an influence over the 

 vegetable kingdom, nevertheless they have by no 

 means been without effect. 



The great object of the beauty, scent, and honey 

 of flowers, is to secure cross fertilisation ; but for this 

 purpose winged insects are almost necessary, because 

 they fly readily from one plant to another, and gener- 

 ally confine themselves for a certain time to the same 

 species. Creeping insects, on the other hand, naturally 

 would pass from one flower to another on the same 

 plant ; and as Mr. Darwin has shown, it is desirable 

 that the pollen should be brought from a different 

 plant altogether. Moreover, when ants quit a plant, 

 they naturally creep up another close by, without any 

 regard to species. Hence, even to small flowers, such 

 as many crucifers, composites, saxifrages, &c., which, 

 as far as size is concerned, might well be fertilised by 

 ants, the visits of flying insects are much more advan- 



