They all agreed that it did, and they passed around Margaret's hat which had a quill stuck in the band, and compared it with the oak leaf.
"That kind of veining is called pinnate veining from a Latin word that means 'feather,'" explained Helen. "The other kind of net veining is that of the maple leaf."
Tom and Dorothy both had maple leaves and they held them up for general observation.
"How is it different from the oak veining?" quizzed Helen.
"The maple is a little like the palm of your hand with the fingers running out," offered Ethel Brown.
"That's it exactly. There are several big ribs starting at the same place instead of one midrib. Then the netting connects all these spreading ribs. That is called palmate veining because it's like the palm of your hand."
"Or the web foot of a duck," suggested Dorothy.
"I should think all the leaves that have a feather-shaped framework would be long and all the palm-shaped ones would be fat," guessed Della.
"They are, and they have been given names descriptive of their shape. The narrowest kind, with the same width all the way, is called 'linear.'"