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INTERDEPENDENCE OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

The Gardeners' Ghronicfe gives an engraving of a very remarkable pitcher plant, I 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 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 ia two sharp recurved Bputß, the whole reminding one of the head of a snake uplifted i and ready to trike with its fangs. At a recent meeting f the Linnaaan 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 that the stalk of tbe lower bag or ampulla- ! shaped pitcher ia swollen.] and hollow, and in their native country most T>£ them are perforated by a species of black ant, which forms its colonies in the old and dry pitcher, and continually visits the fresh ones, so far as can be determined, for the purpose of obtaining food and water, since these fresh pitchers contain a miscellaneous collection or dead and decaying insects of many kinds. As these pitchers are perfect traps to creeping insects of ant-lifce character by reason of bhe incurred ridges round the throat of the pitcher, these black ants ingeniously perforate the stalk, and bo obtain their supplies, and provide a meanß of exit in case of need. Now as to the uses of the formidable spurs which lie concealed under the kidney-shaped lid of the pitchers. There is found in the Bornean forests* where this fine pitcher plant grows, a eurion9 little animal called by the natives "Tamperlilie," and by the few European's who have ever seen it alive, the " 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 email kitten ; the eyes are large and full, the body is monkeylike, and the tail slender and as long as the body, but bushy at the tip like that of the lion. Its feet have, curiously enlarged dish-like tips, reminding one of the enlarged ends of the climbing tendrils of the yirnia 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 Bpeeiea under consideration, as the sharp spurs are so placed that the tarsier is sure to be v pricked by them, and quite sharply, too, if its head is inserted under the 'lid for 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 speoies of Nepenthe$ t made to. serve as the nest ' of a peouliar species of these insects. To suit its requirements, not only is its very structure modified, bat especial precautions are taken to mid off the iufteotattuig tonier. Th« nse ot the Bstoappßa inßeots we abeady know, for it has been demonstrated by Dr. Hooker that the pitchers of Nepenthes not only, allure inseots by a sweet secretion at the rim and upon the lid of the cup, but also that their capture, or the presence of other partly soluble manner, produces aninorease and an aoidulation of the contained watery liquid, which thereupon becomes capable of acting like gastric juice in dissolving flesh, albumen, and the like. In other words ' these pitchers eregot to be stomachs. ' Borneo is indeed a land of many wonders. Dr. Beoo»ri has found there a curious plant (Myrmecodia) whioh never fully' develops until bitten by a large red ant. They make their nest in the swollen Btetn, and thence rush oul to repel air invaders. Dr. Beooari 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. " "'■'

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HNS18801113.2.52.2

Bibliographic details

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 62, 13 November 1880, Page 4 (Supplement)

Word Count
703

INTERDEPENDENCE OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 62, 13 November 1880, Page 4 (Supplement)

INTERDEPENDENCE OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 62, 13 November 1880, Page 4 (Supplement)

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