1895.] Vegetable Physiology. 853 
that something is wrong, and are finally driven out by the too luxuriant 
growth of their own culture plant, being compelled to seize their young 
and flee for very life in a comical way. Most remarkable of all, 
especially to one who has busied himself much with trying to make and 
keep pure cultures of various fungi, is the ability of these ants to keep 
their gardens free from bacteria and all sorts of intruding fungi. Cul- 
tures made from various parts of a great many gardens showed conclu- 
sively that in an overwhelming proportion of cases these gardens are 
pure cultures of a single fungus. Unquestionably the ants must be con- 
stantly busy with the destruction and removal of intruding organisms. 
The Kohlrabi, or specially developed bunches of swollen hyphæ ends, 
occur as minute glistening rounded specks on all parts of the garden 
and are eagerly devoured by the ants. Unswollen, long mycelial threads 
push out into the air from all parts of the garden as soon as the ants 
are removed, and finally bear two kinds of conidial fruits, but nothing 
of the sort occurs while the ants are in undisturbed possession, and it 
is pretty certain that they must keep these undesirable shoots in check 
by constant biting, although this was not observed. The two kinds of 
conidial fruits were also obtained from artificial cultures under special 
conditions. In rare cases (only 4 were observed) the fungous garden 
pushes up through the top of the nest and fruits in the open air, this 
form of fructification being a large, flecked, wine-red, Amanita-like 
Agaricus, named by the author Rozites gongylophora, and never found 
except on the ant nests, rooted in the fungous garden. Pure cultures 
in great numbers and numerous microscopic observations proved beyond 
reasonable doubt that the swollen hyphæ, and the various kinds of 
fructification belong to one and the same fungus, and establish for the 
first time the existence of true conidia in the Agaricineæ. The ants of 
the other two genera, while equally diligent cultivators of fungi, build 
much smaller nests and are not leaf cutters, but use fragments of wood, 
dung, etc., as a substratum for their gardens. The fungi cultivated by 
them are believed to be hymenomycetous, but each genus has a differ- 
ent species. The different species of these ants vary in ability as gard- 
eners. The facts set forth in this book were derived from prolonged 
examination of the ants in the open and in captivity, and by hundreds 
of patient and painstaking cultures and microscopic studies, and appear 
to be worthy of full credence. Mr. Moller’s persistent and painstaking 
method of work is especially commendable to those over-ambitious 
young men who are content to look into the a ot one day and 
publish the next. 
