"Papa, we can see the sun's colors," said Davy. "When it shines through the cut-glass berry-dish it makes all its colors on the table-cloth."
"So it does, Davy, I didn't remember that. A glass prism shows us all the colors in the sunlight, and these are the colors that it puts into the flowers and fruit just how, I am afraid we shall never know, though like all great wonders, I suppose, it is really a very simple thing. When plants grow without sunlight, they grow without color, and it is the same with little boys and girls. Open air, sunlight, fresh water, and good food these are what make plants and people strong and happy and beautiful."
And so June passed and half the year was gone. Prue and Davy were brown from working and playing out of doors, and were growing so fast that Davy said it was hard for his corn to keep up with him. They took great pride in the flowers and vegetables that came to the table from their gardens and always wanted them in separate dishes from those that came from the larger garden. When any of their friends came to dine with them, it was Prue's flowers that were to be worn and Davy's vegetables that were first to be served. By the end of June some of the early things were gone, and had been replanted. Other things had grown so big that they were beginning to crowd in their rows and beds, so that by the first of July, the little gardens that grew side by side, and could be seen like a picture through the windows where the winter gardens had been, reminding little Prue of Alice's garden in Wonderland, had become almost a wonderland jungle.
JULY
I A PLANT IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PRINCIPAL PARTS
Davy and Prue looked up quickly from their little corner by the peach-tree. It was a warm day, and they were resting in what they called their "house," because it was a shut-in nook behind the corn, and with tall sunflowers on the other side. Just now when the Chief Gardener came upon them they were pulling some flowers to pieces and talking about them very earnestly.
"Class in botany please rise," he said again, taking a seat himself on a bench close by.
"But I can't it's too warm," said little Prue, "and besides I've got my lap full of flowers."
"Can't the class in botany sit by the teacher?" asked Davy.
The teacher moved over. Prue gathered her dress into an apron, and presently the children were perched one on each side of the Chief Gardener, who fanned himself with his straw hat, for it was a real July day.
"We've been seeing how many of the parts of a plant we knew," said Davy. "We know all the parts, I guess, but of some plants we can't tell which are which."
"Suppose you name the parts for me," said the Chief Gardener.
"Oh, let me! Let me!" began Prue. "I asked first!"
Davy looked a little disappointed, but waited.
"Very well, suppose you try, Prue."
The little maid was excited.
"Why why, there's the c'roller and the calyx and the pistil and the panthers, and "
The Chief Gardener laughed in spite of himself, and Davy looked rather shocked.
"She always calls the anthers 'panthers,'" he said, sorrowfully, "and she never will say 'corolla' right."
"And those are not the parts of a plant either," added the Chief Gardener, "but the parts of a flower. A plant is divided into three principal parts. Now, Davy, it's your turn. See if you can tell me what they are."
"Well," began Davy, "the root is one."
"The root is one, Davy; quite right. Now for the others."
"The leaves are another."
"The leaves, yes, the leaves are another."
"And the flower makes three, doesn't it? But then there's the stalk, too. That makes four. There must be four parts."
"There are a great many parts," nodded the Chief Gardener, "but there are only three principal parts the root, the stem, and the leaf. To a botanist one who studies plants and how they grow the flower is only a branch of the stem, and its parts are leaves."
"I suppose that is why rose-petals are called leaves," said little Prue.
"I think it is."
"But but don't you think a flower ought
to be a principal part?" asked Davy.
"Well, it is in a way. It is a particular kind of a principal part, made for a special purpose. But after all, it is really a branch, for it comes from a bud, just as other branches do, and it comes just where any branch would come. Many times you cannot tell whether a bud is going to make a flower or just leaves until it opens. And there are a few queer flowers in the world that can hardly be told from leaves even after they do open."
II THERE ARE EXOGENS AND ENDOGENS
"And let me tell again," said little Prue. "I know I can get them right, this time."
So little Prue told again, and got it almost right, though she did call anthers "panthers" again, just as the first time.
"Now, Davy, it's your turn," said the Chief Gardener.
Davy picked up a little pink flower which he had found in the grass. It was oxalis, or sorrel, and sometimes the children nibbled the sour leaves, calling it sour-grass. Of course, you must not forget that Davy was older than Prue, and perhaps a little more thoughtful.