78 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
The chambers and galleries excavated into the earth extend a con¬ 
siderable distance down to the region of constant moisture. Some 
ants of South America are said to cross wide rivers by tunneling under 
the river-beds. Sometimes the nest is carried above ground by means 
of earth heaped up and often cemented together. In South America 
ant-hills often exceed the height of a man. I recently saw a picture 
of an ant-hill in Africa, the top of which was crowned with a dwelling 
for man. Such ant-hills are from twenty to thirty feet in height and 
have.been used as look-out stations on the Cape-to Cairo Railroad. 
THE PITCHER-PLANT 
I N various parts of the earth grows a peculiar plant called the pitcher- 
plant. The one shown in the picture grew in Jamaica, one of the 
islands of the West Indies. This plant generally growls in swampy 
places, probably on account 
of its need of abundance of 
water. The leaves are long 
and hollow, and the upper 
part formis somewhat of a 
cap, which opens and allows 
rain-water to collect in the 
leaf pitcher below. 
Insects of all kinds 
(and they are very numer¬ 
ous in tropical climates like 
that of Jamaica) crawl 
down the inner surface of 
the pitcher, but are pre¬ 
vented from escaping by 
the hairs that line the in¬ 
side of the leaf and point 
downward. As a result the 
pitcher collects many in¬ 
sects, which nature has 
The pitcher-plant 
caused the plant to utilize as food. In this way it thrives in soil which 
is naturally poor in nitrogen. 
