PLANTS THAT ROB AND MURDER 71 
ous spiders; still others are striped like strange 
lizards. 
From India we get ivory-like species of velvety 
white and gold; from the American tropics come 
brilliant specimens whose colours blend so gradu- 
ally and harmoniously as to form the most charm- 
ing of floral rainbows. In the Philippine Islands 
are found eerie moth-orchids, with spikes of flow- 
ers which remind one of tinted snow-crystals swing- 
ing on a spider’s web. 
All of these wonderful robber plants seem to 
have nothing to do but to be beautiful. Lounging 
in the tree-tops, they laugh in all their glory, bid- 
ding mankind to “consider the lilies of the field, how 
they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin’; and 
yet these parasitic orchids array themselves so gor- 
geously as to challenge all imitation! 
