INTERDEPENDENCE OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 62, 13 November 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

INTERDEPENDENCE OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

The Owfiemn 1 Ohronicfe gives an' engraving of a very remarkable pitcher plant;' new to cultivation, but described "by Dr. Hooker, a few years ago, from dried specimens collected in Borneo by Low and others. The large, bag-shaped pitchers i are, when developed, provided with two sharply-toothed wings. The neck of the pitcher is thrown into ridges with intervening furrows, and is prolonged at the ! back into an erect, or slightly incurved process, terminating in two Bharp recurved spurs, the whole reminding one of the head . of a snake uplifted and ready to trike with its fangs. At a recent meeting f the Linnaean Society, Mr. Burbridge, an observant naturalist, read a paper on the subject, which. throws some light on the curious organisation in question, and is of considerable interest as illustrating the solidarity of the organic world. It -seems t bhab the stalk of tie lower' bag- orszapirtla- | shaped pitcher is swollen and hollow, and in their native country most of them are perforated by a species of black ant, which forms its colonies in the old and dry pitcher, and continually visits the fresh oneß, so far as can be determined, for the purpose of obtaining food and water, since these f iesh pitchers contain a miscellaneous collection ok dead and decaying' insects of many kinds. As theae pitchers ate perfect traps to creeping insects of ant-like character by reason of the incurved ridges found the throat of the pitcher, these black ants ingeniously perforate the stalk, and so obtain their supplies, and provide a means of exit in case of need. Now as to the uses of the formidable Bpura which lie concealed under the kidney-shaped lid of the pitchers. There is found in the JBornean forests,' where this fine pitcher plant grows, a curious little animal called by the natives and by the few Europeans who have ever seen it alive, the 11 Spectre Tarsier" (Tarsier spectrum.) It is a most singular and interesting creature, about the size of a rat. Its head is singularly like that of a small kitten ; the eyes are large and full, the body is monkeylite, ani fete tail slender and as long, as the body, but bushy at the tip like $hat of the lion. Its feet have curiously enlarged dish-like tips, reminding one of the enlarged ends of the climbing tendrils of the Virnia creeper. This little animal is an insect-eater, and knowing that the pitchers contain entrapped insects, visits them pretty regularly. In the case of some of the pitcher plants the insects imprisoned in their unarmed urns are readily removed, but not so in the species under' consideration, as the sharp spurs are so placed that the t&Tsier is suie to be pricked by them, I and quite Bharply, too, if its head is inserted under the lid lor getting at the interior. The main question, and the one yet to be solved, is, of what use are the living ants, .and what end is this one species of Nepenthes made to serve as the nest of a peculiar species of these insects. To suit its requirements, not only is its very structure modified, but espeoial precautions are taken to ward off the insect-eating tarsier. The use of the entrapped insects we already know, for it has been demonstrated by Dr. Hooker that the pitchers of Nepenthes not oniy allure insects by a sweet secretion at •the tim and upon the lid of the cap, bat also that their capture, or the ptesenoe of other partly soluble manner, , produces an inorease •and an aoidulation of the oontained watery liquid, which thereupon becomes capable of acting like gastric juice in dissolving flesh, albumen, and the like. In other words these pitchers seem to be stomachs. Borneo is . indeed a land of many wonders. Dr. Beooari has found there a carious plant (MyrmDodia) which never fully develops until bitten by a large red ant." They make their nest in the swollen stem, and thence rußh out to repel all invaders. Dr. Becoari asserts that the presence of these ants is absolutely essential to the plant's existence, for unless the young plants are thus attacked they soon perish.