. A textbook of botany for colleges and universities ... Botany. 754 ECOLOGY. furthermore, the commensalistic ants (as Asteca) usually are without effective weap- ons of offense and are not disposed to attack intruders. The domatial chambers develop quite independently of ant stimulation. A remarkable case of symbiosis is found among certain South American leaf- cutting ants. The fungus, Rozites gongylophora, is said to furnish the sole food of certain ants, which cultivate it in their " fungus gardens.'' The ants cut off leaves and take them to the "gardens," where they serve a
. A textbook of botany for colleges and universities ... Botany. 754 ECOLOGY. furthermore, the commensalistic ants (as Asteca) usually are without effective weap- ons of offense and are not disposed to attack intruders. The domatial chambers develop quite independently of ant stimulation. A remarkable case of symbiosis is found among certain South American leaf- cutting ants. The fungus, Rozites gongylophora, is said to furnish the sole food of certain ants, which cultivate it in their " fungus gardens.'' The ants cut off leaves and take them to the "gardens," where they serve as food for the fungi. Similarly, the termites or white ants have " fungus gardens," and even are supposed to weed out undesirable fungi. Saproph3^sni. — General con- siderations. — Saprophytes are defined as plants that obtain their food from dead organic matter, appearing to contrast sharply on the one hand with autophytes or independent plants, and on the other hand with parasites, which derive their food from living or- ganisms. However, careful study has shown that all gradations occur between saprophytes and autophytes and between sapro- phytes and parasites, making it often a matter of extreme diffi- culty to determine how certain plants should be classified; indeed, in many cases a particular plant may vary in its nutritive relations, belonging sometimes to one group and sometimes to another. Those plants which obtain all their food from dead organic matter may be termed holosaprophytes, while those plants that are partially saprophytic and partially autophytic may be termed partial saprophytes. The more facultative or plastic forms, which may live as autophytes, as saprophytes, or as partial saprophytes, may be termed mixophytes. Saprophytism in the fungi and bacteria. — The most representative holosaprophytes occur among the fungi and bacteria. Among the com- mon saprophytic bacteria are the nitrifying organisms of soil and water, the organisms causing
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