It is, however, certain that though a few individual seeds may sprout in the nests from time to time either with or without the concurrence of the ants, the great mass remain for many weeks, or even months, quite intact, neither decaying nor germinating, whereas every one knows that if a quantity of seeds are placed in the soil in a moist and warm place, all the seeds that are of one kind will almost simultaneously begin to grow after the lapse of a fixed interval. Now if this took place in an ant's nest, the provisions would have to be rapidly consumed at stated periods and to be frequently renewed; but this is not the case. This is easily shown by an examination of the seeds contained in the nests in April or May, many of which will prove to belong to plants which fruit in the autumn and are not to be found later than November. Thus, for example, on May 5th at Cannes, I discovered nutlets of _Cynoglossum pictum_, which can scarcely have been collected later than the preceding October or November. Besides, during the time from the middle of January to the middle of March, scarcely a seed is collected under ordinary circumstances, there being extremely few wild plants in fruit at that season, and yet the granaries will be found well filled if a nest is opened at the end of this period. A knowledge of the fact that ants in warm climates accumulate large and very varied stores of seeds retaining their power of germination, might at times be of service to travellers, by enabling them to obtain, by a stroke or two of the spade, an interesting collection of the seeds and the seed-like fruits of the country, when time and opportunity failed for obtaining them in a more satisfactory manner. The following list of plants, the grain, seeds, and small dry fruits of which I have found in the subterranean granaries of _Atta structor_ and _A. barbara_, especially the latter, shows that the ants probably collect almost indiscriminately from any fruiting plant that falls in their way.