"We will talk a little about leaves to-day," she said. "There are two principal sorts of leaves; now I want you to look at these which I have brought and see if you can find out the difference between them." She handed the children some leaves of the lily of the valley and the tulip, with others from a maple tree near by.
"The shape is different," said one.
"Yes; but that is not what I mean; try again."
"They are not the same color?"
"Try again."
"The maple leaf is divided off by three little ridges spreading apart from the stem," said Ella.
"And how about the others?" asked Mrs. Browne.
"There's only one running through the middle."
"And there's a lot of little cross-marks, or threads, or whatever you call them, in the maple; and in the lily of the valley, and in the tulip they run all one way."
"Ah! now you are coming at it. The two great divisions of leaves of which I just spoke are characterized by these threads, or, as we call them, veins. The maple belongs to the netted-veined leaves, and the others to the parallel-veined. You remember that at our first talk we learned about seed-leaves? Can any of you tell what we called the seed-leaves?"