Personality of plants

ALLIES OF THE PLANT WORLD
the plant's blossoms for honey, as they would
thus destroy the precious grains of pollen.
The South American Imba-uba Tree, Cecropia,
has a hollow trunk in which Bees and
Ants dwell together amicably. The Polygonums
Tree of the same continent has so many
Ant allies that it is often entirely hollowed out
by them. The process often operates so far that
men break off the smaller twigs and use them
as ready-made pipe stems. The Melastroma
Plant of South America provides pouches on
each leaf -stalk for the benefit of its black guar-
dian Ants. The Tococas and Mermidones al-
so have Ant-sacs.
In China it is a common practice of the
Orange-growers to encourage the visitation of
non-vegetarian Ants by placing selected species
on trees and connecting the trees by bamboo
poles over which the faithful insects can rush
their forces to particularly threatened points.
Everyone knows of the large part the indus-
trious Bee plays in the economy of the plant
world. Few plants, there are, which are not
aided in their love-making by this tiny brown
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