The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-25
ANIMAL AND PLANT PARTNERS.
A Friendly Union of Interest in the Strug-
gle for Existence.

A Friendly Union of Interest in the Strug-
gle for Existence.
The principle of partnership, which
makes SO great figure in the COM
mercial world, is found in operation in
both the plant and animal kingdoms
under the name of symbiosis. In fact
what Prof. Weiss has well described as
partnerships" sometimes exist be-
tween plants and animals for their mu-
tual benefit and defense. There is a
group of plants in the tropics called
''ant-loving" or myrmecophilus plants,
which allow syvarms of ants to feed up
on 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
suffer greatly from the ravages of the
leaf-eaters, but the latter are driven off
from the myrmecophilous plants by
their ant friends.
In 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 vegeta BILE cells which
furnish sugar for the animal, while the
latter in turn provides them with nour-
iShnent.
The threads of fungus which flourish
upon the roots of oaks and beeches sur
rounded by decaying leaf-nold turn
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, yeast aud bacterium.
The yeast produces a waste product
which, If allowed to accumulate, would
arrest the process of fermentation; but
this product is precisely what the bac-
terium needs for food and thus it is
absorbed by the one partner as fast as
it is produced by the other and the re-
suit is that the fermentation goes on
for the benefit of both and finally for
the delectation of a third, all-devour-
ing partner-man.
Still another instance of this sort of
combination for mutual benefit would
appear to be furnished by those strange
members of the vegeta BILE kingdom
known as ''carnivorous plants" Some
of these plants are aquatic and feed
upon young fish. They possess pecu-
liar 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 in
their sap Of certain micro-organisms
which flourish upon the food that the |
carnivorous plants devour.
In view of such facts as these, we
must learn not to be too hasty in as
suming that parasitical growths exist |
only at the expense of the plants or
animals on which they are found A
little investigation may show, as in the
case of the oaks and the fungi, that |
what we behold is not battle for life
between the two parties concerned, |
but, on the other hand, a friendly |
union of their interests in the broader
struggle for existence in which all liv-
ing things are engaged. Chicago
Pacord