LETTER 710. TO J.D. HOOKER.

(710/1. The following letters to Sir J.D. Hooker and the late Mr. Moggridge refer to Moggridge's observation that seeds stored in the nest of the ant Atta at Mentone do not germinate, though they are certainly not dead. Moggridge's observations are given in his book, "Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders," 1873, which is full of interesting details. The book is moreover remarkable in having resuscitated our knowledge of the existence of the seed-storing habit. Mr. Moggridge points out that the ancients were familiar with the facts, and quotes the well-known fable of the ant and the grasshopper, which La Fontaine borrowed from Aesop. Mr. Moggridge (page 5) goes on: "So long as Europe was taught Natural History by southern writers the belief prevailed; but no sooner did the tide begin to turn, and the current of information to flood from north to south, than the story became discredited."

In Moggridge's "supplement" on the same subject, published in 1874, the author gives an account of his experiments made at Darwin's suggestion, and concludes (page 174) that "the vapour of formic acid is incapable of rendering the seeds dormant after the manner of the ants," and that indeed "its influence is always injurious to the seeds, even when present only in excessively minute quantities." Though unable to explain the method employed, he was convinced "that the non-germination of the seeds is due to some direct influence voluntarily exercised by the ants, and not merely to the conditions found in the nest" (page 172). See