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I. A POST-CARD PICTURE OF THE EMPEROR OF ANAM, SHOWING THE COMMON TYPE OF HEADDRESS USED BY THE MEN AT HUE. THE TURBAN CONSISTS OF SEVERAL WINDINGS OF A LONG STRIP OF BLACK ICLOTH, LEAVING THE CROWN OF THE HEAD UNCOVERED.

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2. A COMMON TYPE OF IRRIGATING PUMP USED IN THE RICE FIELDS OF

SOUTH CHINA. THE WATER IS RAISED A FOOT OR TWO.

(Photograph furnished by the Canton Christian College.)

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I. A POST-CARD PICTURE OF A VILLAGE IN INDO-CHINA. THE BAMBOO PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART IN THE INDUSTRY OF THE PEOPLE.

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2. A POST-CARD PICTURE OF A SCENE IN THE TOWN OF VINH, ANAM, SHOWING THE TYPE OF HUTS AND THE BROAD HATS OF THE WOMEN.

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ANT ACACIAS AND ACACIA ANTS OF MEXICO AND

CENTRAL AMERICA.

By W. E. SAFFORD.

[With 15 plates.]

Among the plants of the New World which have attracted the attention of early explorers and naturalists are certain acacias armed with large spines, which serve as nesting places for intrepid little stinging ants. These spines, which occur in pairs joined at the base, bear a resemblance to the horns of animals, some of them to the spreading or incurved horns of oxen or buffaloes, others to the erect horns of certain antelopes, while others, sometimes curiously twisted, suggest those of an ibex. From the base of each pair of spines at the median point grows a bipinnate lacy fernlike leaf, which at length falls off, leaving the branches and stems of the acacias studded with the persistent thorns. These leaves bear on their petiole or main stem one or more glands, which when young secrete nectar, often in such abundance that it drops to the ground; and on the tips of many of the leaflets small waxy bodies resembling microscopic eggs or pears, which abound in oil and protoplasm. On plate 2 is shown a leaf of Acacia cornigera from a plant growing in one of the greenhouses of the United States Department of Agriculture, bearing on its petiole an elongated nectar-gland and on its leaflets numerous apical bodies. Both the nectar secreted by the glands and the apical bodies on the leaflets furnish the ants with nutritious food and are fed by them to their larvæ cradled in the hollow thorns of the plant. When the bush is jarred or shaken the ants come swarming out furiously to attack the intruder with their stings. Certain writers hold the theory that these plants, commonly called bull-horn acacias, have been able to enlist the ants as a body guard, furnishing them quarters and subsistence, in return for their protection against leaf-cutting ants and other enemies, and the plants have accordingly been called myrmecophilous, or “antloving." Others refuse to accept this view, declaring that the

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