BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
49 
broken into, the younger parts of the garden are carefully covered 
up at once by the ants to protect the mycelium from light. The 
garden material is carried along when the ants migrate to form a 
new nest, very little of the material containing the mycelium 
being sufficient to impregnate the whole of a new garden with the 
fungus. 
When the ants are removed from a nest and the fungus left to 
grow it is found that the mycelium sends up a mass of hyphae into 
the air, and a second form of conidia is developed, the kohl-rabi 
form disappearing. When only a few ants were left in a nest it 
was observed that they did all in their power to keep down the 
aerial hyphae by biting them off. Moller considers that the kohl- 
rabi formation is not normal to the fungus, but the result of 
cultivation and selection by the ants. Some of the ants are told 
off to weed the fungus-garden, and this is done so thoroughly that 
a portion placed in a nutrient solution yielded a perfectly pure 
culture, not even containing bacteria. 
Pure cultures with the various forms of conidia failed to give 
any clue as to the nature of the perfect form of the fungus to 
which the mycelium belonged. However, a densely-tufted agaric, 
with a purplish, scaly pileus, from 10-16 cm. across, was dis- 
covered growing out of an old nest, and cultivation of the spores 
clearly proved this to be the fully-developed form of the kohl-rabi 
producing fungus of the ants. 
The fungus, according to the Friesian classification, would 
belong to the genus Piioliota ; Moller, however, calls it liozites 
gongylophora . 
Romance of Low Life Amongst Plants .* 
For some unexplained reason the great mass of English people 
possess a very limited knowledge of what is generally included 
under the phrase “ Natural History ; ” in other words, the general 
structure and mode of life of animals and plants. Nevertheless, 
in this respect we are improving, and this improvement is in great 
part due to the untiring energy of Dr. Cooke, who acts on the 
principle of getting in the thin edge of the wedge first. We are 
not overwhelmed with modern theories propounded in what he 
would term fantastic language, but introduced at once to some 
such subject as the “ Scythian Lamb,” whose very mystery proves 
so fascinating that the reader is introduced to the true explanation 
of the matter, and has assimilated certain facts without realizing 
that he is studying the rudiments of Natural History. This is the 
principle followed in the present volume, and expressed as follows 
in the preface : — “ It is not so much to the results of new or recent 
investigations that I have desired to give predominant interest as 
to the general influence which increased knowledge of the structure 
and history of these minute and obscure plants has had upon the 
* “ Romance of Low Life Amongst Plants,” by M. C. Cooke, M.A., 
S.P.C.K. (4s. 6d). 
4 
