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THE FERN BULLETIN 



sinuosum can live after its chamber is plugged (Goe- 

 bel) and that Hydnophyllum and Myrmecoidea can 

 grow and develop their chambers without the presence 

 of ants (Treub) does not prove that ants are useless to 

 the plants any more than the power of Drosera to live 

 ■under favorable conditions without insects is a demon- 

 stration that the plant is not insectivorous. Of the 

 two ferns, Lecanopteris is the more highly developed 

 in myrmecophily, not only in grosser, conspicuous 

 characters, but also in the perfection of its chamber, 

 the walls of which, described and figured by Yapp, are 

 made up of pockets which are doubly serviceable as 

 collectors of possible food and as increasing the ab- 

 sorbing area. 



The doctrine that these stems are enlarged water 

 reservoirs and chambered and the reservoir tissue re- 

 moved because they are too fleshy has a fit companion 

 in that other which interprets the leaves of Dischidia 

 as protectors of the roots but does not tell us what 

 purpose roots serve in such a place. As a matter of 

 fact these plants are also myrmecophilous, the leaves 

 furnishing shelter for the ants and the ants furnishing 

 food which the roots absorb. Dischidia is rarely with- 

 out ants and rarely without a considerable amount of 

 debris brought by them about the root inside each 

 leaf. There are other Asclepiadaceae, epiphytic with- 

 out evident structural modifications, the roots of which 

 are invariably in aerial ants nests. In all these cases 

 it is likely enough that the plant derives some organic 

 as well as mineral food from its tenants.. — From an 

 article on Sam Ramon Polypodiaceae in Philippine 

 Journal of Science. 



