The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-04-29
ANIMAL AND PLANT PARTNERS.
Parasitlcal Growths That Benefit the OBJ
jects on Which They Live.

Parasitical Growths That Benefit the OBJ
Jects on Which They Live.
The principle of partnership, which
makes SO great a figure in the CONNER
cial world, is found in operation in both
the plant and animal kingdoms under
the name of symbiosis- In fact, what
Prot. Weiss has well described as part
nership" sometimes exists between
plants and animals for their future
benefit and defense. There is a group
of plants in the tropics called ''ant-lov-
ing" or myrmecophilous plants, which
allow swarms of ants to feed upon the
nectar secreted on the surface of their
leaves and to dwell in their hollow
stems
The return which the plants receive
for this hospitality is protection against
another species of ants which are fond
OF eating their leaves. Other plants
suffer greatly from the ravages of the
leaf-eaters, but the latter are driven off
from the myrmecophiious plants by
their ant friends.
In a recent address on this subject
Prof Weiss pointed out many instances
OF similar relations both between plants
and animals and between different
plants. The minute green bodies found
on the fresh water polyp have been
shown to be vegetable cells which fur
nish sugar for the animal. while the
latter in urn provides them with nour-
ishment.
The threads of fungus which flourish
| y1nnn tho r0OtS Of 0ol-c nrd haaohac ,,
rounded by ~decaying leaf mold turns
the latter into nourishment for the
trees, and the seedlings of the trees are
unable to grow amid such surroundings
without the aid OF the fungi.
One of the most interesting of these
partnerships has been discovered by
Prof. Marshall Ward among the organ
isms Of the 'ginger-beer plant" Two
such organisms are principally con
cerned in the fermentation of ginger
beer, a yeast and a bacterium.
The yeast produces a waste product
which, if allowed to accumulate, would
arrest the process of lamentations; blu,
this product is precisely what the bac,
terium needs for food, and thus it is alb
sorbed by the one partner as fast as il
is produced by the other, and the re
suit is that the fermentation goes or
for the benefit of both, and finally for
the d~eIectation of a third, ~all-devour
ing partner-man.
Still another instance of this sort O.
combination for mutual benefit would
appear to be furnished by those strange
members of the vegetable kingdom
known as "carnivorous plants" Some
of these plants are aquatic, and feet
upon young fish. They possess a pc
culiar peptonic power which enables
them to digest their animal food. Re
Gently it has been shown that this di
gestive ability is due to the presence il
their sap of certain micro-organism'
which flourish upon the food that thu
carnivorous plants devour.
In view of such facts as these, W,
must learn not to be too hasty in as
Stunning that parasitical growths exis
only at the expense of the plants O
animals on which they are found. 4
little investigation may show, as in tn
case of the oaks and the fungi, tina
what we behold is not a battle for lif
between the two parties concerned, but
on the other hand, a friendly uniol
of their interests in the broader strug
gle for existence in which all Twin,
things are engaged. Youths Com
panion.