TROPICAL AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19699, 27 July 1927, Page 11

TROPICAL AMERICA.

ANTS' KITCHEN GARDEN.

ROTARY AND OLD PANAMA.

The natural history of Mexico,' Central America and the Spanish Main formed the subject of a lecture on "Nature Study in Latin America;" given by Professor J. C. Sperrin-Johnson in the University Hall last evening before the Field Club. The lecturer said that the north and the central plateau of Mexico were arid and cultivation depended on extensive irrigation. Without such aid the soil supported only scrubby growths of mesquite, jcaptjs., aqd,Jfconi bushes. .In the south large -areas were devoted to the cultivation of an agave from who?e . fermenting sap, obtained from the base of the flower stalk, an intoxicating liquor was made. This pernicious drink, known as pulque, was the curse of the lower orders :in Mexico. '.t ' Great richness of plant and animal life characterised the American tropical region, which extended from the South of Mexico to Brazil and included the Caribbean Islands. The lecturer described an interesting partnership of ants and plants, in which a certain species of plant provided food for an ant'in return fot: protection from leaf-cutting insects and other marauders. Ants which made kitchen-gardens were among the wonders of this region. These remarkable insects ' cut fragments of leaves and carried them underground, where the pieces were heaped up in beds and an edible fungus cultivated thereon by the ants.. Much less retiring were the ecitous or foraging ants, whose busy columns scoured everything in their line of march in search of prey. spiders and scorpions fled before their pitiless advance, while birds hover'ed above them to snap up any winged insect that should take flight. Even wasps were powerless when these marauders raided their nests and stole their fat larvae. • The historical associations of Panama were "referred to by the lecturer. The ruins of old Panama, sacked by buccaneers in the 17th century, had been in a bad. state of decay, .partly owing to the destructive invasion of tropical vegetation. Further decay was prevented by tho Rotary Club of Panama, which obtained, permission to save the remaining, relics by; clearing the site and preserving it as a national park for the republic. The Spanish Main was said by leeturer to comprise the mainland, and islands of the* Caribbean Sea. Interestine lantern slides^'of historic spots shown, including a view of the citadel of Havana, an ancient Morro castle, captured by British .troops, in the lßth century. Reference was made to the natural pitch lake at Trinidad. The gaps c »' J secJ by the removal of asphalt * rom . "8 strange lake are quickly filled up p. * apparently inexhaustible supply "® i below.