It was about a week after this that Davy and Prue came to the Chief Gardener with their hands filled with leaves.
"We want you to tell us about them," they said. "There is a lot of kinds and shapes, and some we can't tell whether they are simple or compound, or anything."
The Chief Gardener looked over their collection.
"Well," he said, "I am afraid you are getting ahead too fast. It would take a real sure-enough botanist to tell all about these leaves."
Davy picked up a daisy leaf.
"Is that simple or compound?" he asked.
"It's mostly ribs," laughed the Chief Gardener. "There really isn't much leaf about a daisy leaf, but what there is of it is simple, only it is so cut and sprangly that it might almost be called a compound leaf."
They looked at many others in the collection, and the Chief Gardener explained as far as he could.
"You will learn all the names of the different shapes some day," he said, "but it is too much for little folks. I suppose, though, you might remember the parts of a leaf. They are the blade, the stem, and the stipules."
"This is the blade, and this is the stem," said Davy, "but what are stipules?"