A REMARKABLE LEAVES. 83 
flower will hold about three quarts! Altogether, its 
weight is about fifteen pounds. It is several months 
in coming to maturity, when it lasts but a few days, 
gradually putrefying, and thus attracting large num- 
bers of insects who complete the work of fertilisa- 
tion. . 
There is an insect, well known to entomologists, 
which stands for hours in an erect and almost immov- 
able position on the stems of 
trees and plants, with its fore- 
legs held up like arms waiting 
to seize any insect which may 
come within reach. This insect 
is called the Mantis. The rea- 
son we have referred to it here 
is, that there is a plant whose 
flowers mimic it. So close is 
this resemblance that a whole 
genus of plants of the Ginger 
tribe are called Mantista in 
consequence. It will be seen 
from our illustration, which 
only represents a portion of 
the plant, that the purple and 
yellow flowers maintain just the same erect posi- 
tion as the insect, although to those not acquainted 
with the Mantis another resemblance has suggested 
itself, viz., to a ballet dancer, and hence the plant is 
familiarly known as the Dancing Girls. 
But probably the most remarkable flowers are to 
be found among the Orchids, a very extensive order 
of British and exotic plants, many of which are culti- 
