HORTICULTURISTS 225 



which shelters the ants' nest from sun and rain, 

 and in due course produce juicy fruits, which are 

 gathered and eaten by the ants. 



About fourteen distinct species have been identi- 

 fied as constituting the flora of these gardens. 

 Not one of these has been found growing elsewhere, 

 and it is very rarely that any other plant but these 

 is found in an ants' hanging garden. The plants 

 grown on the Camponotus nests up in the branches 

 are all epiphytes — plants adapted for growing on 

 trees away from the ground. Azteca makes its 

 gardens nearer to the ground, and the plants it 

 cultivates — distinct from those of Camponotus — are 

 not true epiphytes. 



The Termites, too, who have borrowed so many 

 of the habits of the real Ants, appear to have taken 

 a lesson from them in the matter of fungus cultiva- 

 tion. Smeathman stated that some species had 

 special chambers in their nests which were devoted 

 to the growing of a fungus which they used as 

 food ; but until quite recently no confirmation of 

 this statement was forthcoming. 



Now, however, Mr. Haviland has found it to 

 be true in regard to several species. In the case 

 of the South African species, Termes angustata, he 

 found that the nursery cells were built of a material 

 which produced a fungus — a kind of mould — upon 

 which were innumerable white bodies (sporangia) ; 

 and a similar condition was found in some nests 

 explored at Singapore. 



In Natal he discovered a new species, Hodotermes 



15 



