PINE-NEEDLES ARE LEAVES
"Look at mine first!" she said, holding them out, and fanning herself with her little hat.
Davy sat down by them, and looked his collection over to be sure they were right.
"Well, Prue, let's see what you have," began the Chief Gardener. "One peach leaf—that's simple enough. Then here's a lily leaf—that's simple, too. But what's this? It looks as if it came from a Virginia creeper. But where's the rest of it? That's only part of a leaf."
"I told Prue that," said Davy, "and I brought a whole one for one of my compound leaves."
Davy held up what he had brought. The Chief Gardener took the stem of the Virginia creeper. Branching from it were five little stems with a small leaf on each. Prue had taken one of these to be a complete leaf, when it was really only a part of one compound leaf divided into five parts.
"You see, Prue, there is only one stem that joins the main stalk," explained the Chief Gardener. "Whatever branches out from that stem is a part of that leaf. What else have you brought, Davy?"
Davy held up a blackberry leaf, and the leaf of a tomato.