THE 
HEW PHYTOLOGIST. 
Vol. VIII., No. 3. 
March 27TH, 1909. 
THE DISPERSAL OF THE SEEDS OF THE GORSE 
AND THE BROOM BY ANTS, 
By F. E. Weiss, D.Sc., 
Professor of Botany in the University of Manchester. 
[Text-Figs. 1 and 2.] 
N reviewing Sernander’s Monograph of European myrmeco- 
chorous Plants, * 1 I alluded to the curious distribution of the 
gorse (Ulex europceus) along roadsides and over disused cart- 
tracks on moorlands, and suggested the probability of ants acting 
as agents in the dispersal of the seeds of this plant. The fact that 
the seeds of the gorse are provided with a brightly coloured 
caruncle filled with oily food material and resembling very closely 
the elaiosomes described by Sernander 2 for Chelidonium, Viola and 
other plants, the seeds of which are carried away by ants, seemed 
to me a strong argument in favour of including Ulex among the so- 
called myrmecochorous plants, and as ants are known to make use 
of paths and roadways for facilitating the transport of their 
building-material and food to their nests, we should obtain an 
explanation of the spreading of gorse-bushes along existing and 
disused roads. 
I mentioned a striking instance of such rectilinear distribution 
of gorse-bushes on the high moorland above Wass Bank in York¬ 
shire, where the Ulex extends in a straight line from the main-road, 
along which it is well distributed, across a pure Calluna moor, and on 
closer inspection is found to mark out the course of an over-grown 
1 Weiss, F. E. The Dispersal of Fruits and Seeds by Ants. 
New Phytologist, Vol. VII., No. 1, 1908. 
2 Sernander, R. “ Entwurf einer Monographic der Europiiischen 
Myrmecochoren.” Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademicns 
Handlingar, 1906. 
