Mantisia
(from mantis, an insect, to which the flowers have been compared). ORD. Scitamineae. A small genus (two species) of stove herbaceous perennials, natives of the East Indies. Flowers pale violet, with a yellow lip; thyrse loose; scape leafless. Leaves usually narrow, with a long twisted point. M. saltatoria is the species usually seen in our stoves. It thrives in a compost of sandy peat and fibry loam. thorough drainage is most essential. Propagated by divisions, made just as growth commences.
M. saltatoria (dancing).* Dancing or Opera Girls. fl., petal yellow, large, the rest of the flower purple; laciniae dissimilar, the upper one rounded in a kind of blunt spur, two lower somewhat ear-shaped; bracts large, petal-like. July. l. broad-lanceolate, much elongated at the point, with petioles entirely sheathing the stem. h. 1ft. East Indies, 1808. (B. M. 1320.)