REMARKABLE LEAVES. 



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 Mantisia 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- 



FIG. 87. 



