"And there are animals that eat both vegetables and animals, you and I, for instance. So you can't draw any sharp lines."
"When a plant gets out of the cell stage and has a 'root, stem and leaves' then you know it's a plant if you don't before," insisted Dorothy, determined to make her knowledge useful.
"Did any of you notice the bean I've been sprouting in my room?" asked Helen.
"I'll get it, I'll get it!" shouted Dicky.
"Trust Dicky not to let anything escape his notice!" laughed his big sister.
Dicky returned in a minute or two carrying very carefully a shallow earthenware dish from which some thick yellow-green tips were sprouting.
"I soaked some peas and beans last week," explained Helen, "and when they were tender I planted them. You see they're poking up their heads now."
"They don't look like real leaves," commented Ethel Blue.
"This first pair is really the two halves of the bean. They hold the food for the little plant. They're so fat and pudgy that they never do look like real leaves. In other plants where there isn't so much food they become quite like their later brothers."