leaf, until all are scanned as closely and curiously
as the leaves of the comic papers that form the caricature plants of
the literary kingdom.

What a valuable plant this would be for one of our professional
caricaturists to have growing in his conservatory! When an order was
sent to him for a "speaking likeness" of some unhappy politician, he
could simply visit his _Justicia Picta_ with pencil and paper in hand,
and look over the leaves for a suitable squint, grin, or distorted nose
to sketch from. He could, moreover, affirm with truth that the portrait
was "taken from nature." Cuthbert Collingwood, the celebrated
naturalist, says of the _Justicia Picta_: "One of these plants in the
garden of Gustave Dore would be worth a fortune to him, supplying him
with a never-failing fund of grotesque physiognomies, from which he
might illustrate every serio-comic romance ever written." I have never
heard of the cultivation of the Caricature Plant in this country; but
botanists tell us that it is a hardy shrub. I think we should be glad to
see the funny faces on its leaves. After all the lovely flowers we are
called upon to admire, I am sure that a plant evidently intended to make
us laugh would receive a warm welcome from our young people.

The Chinese appreciate the Caricature Plant, and in some parts of China
it is quite extensively cultivated. Perhaps some of the funny, grinning
faces on Chinese toys and ornaments are reproductions of the grotesque
features on the leaves of the plant.

Finally, I must assure any unbelieving readers of ST. NICHOLAS that
neither in this account of a very remarkable plant, nor in the
accompanying illustration, has the writer drawn upon imagination.

[Illustration: THE CARICATURE PLANT.]

The _Justicia Picta_ really exists. It is a native of the East Indies,
and is a source of much amusement and curiosity to both botanists and
travelers.

VEGETABLE CLOTHING.

BY C. J. RUSSELL.

About two hundred years ago the governor of the island of Jamaica, Sir
Thomas Lynch, sent to King Charles II. of England a vegetable necktie,
and a very good necktie it was, although it had grown on a tree and had
not been altered since it was taken from the tree. It was as soft and
white and delicate as lace, and it is not surprising that the King
should have expressed his doubts when he was told that the beautiful
fabric had grown on a tree in almost the exact condition in which he saw
it. It had been s