Part 7

There was not much gardening that day, of course, for there were parades to see and music to hear, and fireworks in the evening. The Chief Gardener had brought home the fireworks, and when all the rockets had been fired and the Roman candles, he brought out something larger than the rest, and when it was lighted, it all at once turned into a great flower-pot and sent out hundreds of the most beautiful fiery flowers, such as no garden would grow, no matter how hot it was.

"That is to pay for the sus-prise you gave us this morning," said the Chief Gardener, when little Prue was through dancing and squealing and jumping up and down with delight. "They grew in that hot sun yesterday."

But little Prue didn't believe it, though she did ask if some of the stars which came out of the rockets didn't stay in the sky with the other stars. She was quite certain she had never seen so many in the sky before.

July was a great month in the little gardens. Almost everything bloomed and bore. The pinks, the pansies, the alyssum, the sweet-williams and the morning-glories--they grew and then bloomed and crowded each other in their beds until some of them had to be moved into new places, while as for Davy's things, his corn grew taller and taller, until it shaded his tomato vines, and he was afraid they would not do well for want of sun. But the sun was up so high, and was so hot in July, that perhaps they got enough anyway, for they grew so big they had to be tied up, and the tomatoes on them were so large that Davy thought one was almost enough for a whole family. As for his beans--well, Davy will plant fewer beans next year. They began to bear just a little at first, and then, all at once, there were beans enough on his few hills, not only for himself and Prue, but for the rest of the family, and then for the neighbors, too. Davy picked nearly all one hot afternoon to keep up with his bean crop, and then nearly trotted his fat legs off carrying little baskets to the different people that he knew, explaining to each that these were really from his own garden--his own beans that he had planted and tended himself. Then he and Prue carried some vegetables and flowers to a little hospital not far away, where there were some sick children, and some who were just getting well. And it was a happy, happy time for the little boy and girl when they took the things they had planted and cared for to the other little boys and girls who seemed so glad to have them come.

But as the weather grew warmer and summer showers came the weeds got worse and worse. Sometimes when Davy and Prue had tried very hard to get them all out and found that new ones had come almost over night, while some of the old ones they had cut down had taken root again, they were almost discouraged.

"I don't see what weeds are for anyway," Davy said one warm morning, almost crying, and little Prue, whose face was very red and hot, flung herself down in the shady peach-tree house, too tired to talk. "Now, there's that old pursley, I pull and pull and cut, and unless I carry every bit of it away, it all takes root again and grows right along as if I hadn't touched it."

"Yes," said the Chief Gardener, "it is a nuisance. I suppose its pretty sister is very much ashamed of it."

"Its sister! Why, who is its sister?" asked Davy, while little Prue sat up and forgot she was tired.

"Miss Portulaca Purslane, of course, sometimes called Rose-moss, because her flower is something like a wild rose and her stem and leaves a little like overgrown moss."

"Oh, is my sweet rose-moss just old pursley weed?" whimpered little Prue, who was very proud of a little bunch of portulaca that was just in full bloom. She had chosen the pretty flower from a catalogue, and it had been one of her best growers.

"Why, no, Prue, your rose-moss is not a weed at all, but she belongs to the Purslane family, and like a good many other families it has a member who has run wild and become a disgrace to its relatives and a trouble to everybody. There is another wild purslane, but it is not a weed. It is just a little wild-wood cousin of Portulaca. Her name is Claytonia, and she lives in pleasant places in the woods, and hides under the leaves in winter-time. Most people call her Spring-beauty."

"Oh, Spring-beauty! Oh, I know! Just bushels of them--Davy and I found over by the lake last spring! Little white flowers with pink lines in them, and smell--just a little tiny smell--so--so springy and wild. Oh, I just love Spring-beauties! But I'm sorry my nice rose-moss is pursley. Is it, Papa? Is it really a sister to that ugly weed?"

"Suppose you bring a branch of each over to the bench here--one with flowers on it."

Prue brought a sprig of her precious rose-moss, and Davy a large piece of the pursley from the pile he had just cut down. The Chief Gardener took them and put them together.

"You see, they are a good deal alike," he said, "though the leaves are different--Miss Portulaca's being the finer."

Then he took one of the tiny pursley flowers and put it under the magnifying-glass, and let the children look. Yes, it was almost exactly like the beautiful flower of the rose-moss, only smaller. Each flower had two green sepals and five colored petals, also five stamens, so they knew it was an exogen, though it would have been harder to tell this from the thick, pulpy leaves and stem. The little seed-pod of each had a tiny cap which lifted off when the seeds were ripe, leaving a perfect cup, heaping full.

"You see, children," said the Chief Gardener, "weeds do not care to be either useful or ornamental. So they become rank and common, and lose their beautiful flowers. But somehow they never have any less seed. They want to grow just as thickly as they can, and however small their flowers are, the seed-pods are always full to the brim."

"Well," said Prue, "I'm sure there can't be any of my flowers relation to chickweed. I never can get that out of my beds."

The Chief Gardener thought a minute.

"Why, yes, Prue," he said, "that's Cousin Stella; I suppose she came to see the beautiful Dian and to make her all the trouble she can."

"Oh, Papa! what do you mean by Stella and Dian?"

"Well, Stellaria is chickweed, and she's a cousin to Dianthus, your lovely pinks. I suppose you might call them Stella and Dian, for short. They are not very nearly related, but they do belong to the same family, and perhaps they were once more alike. I don't suppose beautiful Dian would own Stella, but Stella (or perhaps her weed friends call her Chick), is a great nuisance and makes Dian and _her_ friends all the trouble she can."

"Papa," said Davy, who had been silent all this time, "are there really any plant families that don't have wild members who behave badly and become just weeds?"

"I don't remember any real weeds in the Lily family, Davy, though almost any plant will become a weed if allowed to run wild and live in fence corners, like a tramp. They become prodigals then, like the man's son in the Bible. And sometimes they come back to the garden, as the prodigal son did, to become well-behaved and useful flowers again. Of course, there are many others that have always lived wild in the woods and fields, and are not called weeds, because they do not spread and destroy other plants. These are our wild flowers, and the world would be poor, indeed, without them. Sometimes we bring them into the garden, and make them grow larger and call them by a new name. And sometimes, I am sorry to say, a sweet wild flower will suddenly spread and overrun the fields and become almost a weed. I am afraid our beautiful daisies are becoming a weed to a good many farmers. Those fields that are like banks of snow, and so beautiful to us, must worry the man who owns them and cannot get rid of the millions of 'rare Marguerites!'"

Little Prue sighed.

"Oh, dear," she said, "it's just too bad that there isn't some flower, or somebody, or something that can be just every bit good, all the time, to everybody."

The Chief Gardener smiled.

"We can only do our very best," he said.

AUGUST

AUGUST

I

THERE ARE JUST TWO KINDS OF LEAVES

A GOOD many things were ripe in August, and some of the things were through blooming. Prue did not plant a great deal. It was too hot to dig long in the sun, and then there did not seem to be much in the way of flowers that could be planted so late. Davy planted a few turnips and some late beans and salad, because there was time for these, but even Davy found it pleasanter to sit in the shade, where there was a breeze, and pull plants to pieces and talk about Exogens and Endogens and the different parts of things, than to hoe and dig and rake on an August day.

The Chief Gardener heard quite loud voices under the peach-trees, one warm afternoon. Prue and Davy were not really quarreling, but they seemed to be a good deal in earnest about something. The Chief Gardener went over there.

"What is all the excitement?" he asked.

Davy held up and waved a large stem of very coarse grass.

"It's an Endogen," he said, very decidedly, "isn't it, Papa?"

"It isn't at all, is it, Papa?" eagerly asked little Prue.

The Chief Gardener took the plumey stem and sat down.

"Why do you think it is an Endogen, Davy?" he asked.

"Because it's a grass, and belongs to the grass family. And corn belongs to the grass family, too, and corn is an Endogen, for it has a big pith instead of rings. So if corn is an Endogen, grass is, too."

The Chief Gardener smiled.

"Well, that's pretty good, Davy, and is true enough, but it isn't just the best way to reason. Now, Prue, why did you think it was an Exogen?"

"Because the stem is hollow, and makes a ring when you cut off a little slice of it, and because the bloom part is in five pieces."

"Sharp eyes," nodded the Chief Gardener, "but Davy is right. There is not always a pith in the endogens. Pipe-stems and fish-poles are hollow, but the cane we make them of is an Endogen, too. And as for the bloom part of this grass, it is a sort of a tassel, like that of the corn. The real blooms are very tiny--too small for us to examine. And then, perhaps, some insect or bird has nipped some of it away. I think I must tell you a little more about leaves, so Davy won't have to know that grass is an Endogen because corn is, and so you won't be mistaken. Suppose, Davy, you try to tell me how many kinds of leaves there are."

Davy looked quite helpless.

"It would take a hundred years," he said.

"Why, no," said Prue. "There are just two kinds. Exogens and Endogens."

Davy laughed, and the Chief Gardener laughed with him.

"But you are right, Prue, in one way," he said. "There are just two kinds of leaves--simple and compound. A simple leaf is a leaf of just one blade, like a grass leaf, or the leaf of a morning-glory. A compound leaf is a leaf made up of several blades, like a bean leaf, which you know is divided into three parts. Of course, there are hundreds of shapes and thousands of species of leaves, but there are just two great kinds, simple and compound. Suppose, Davy, you look about and bring me three compound leaves, and you, Prue, try to find three simple leaves, and let's see what they are."

The children jumped up quickly, and wandered out into the sunny garden, looking as they went. The Chief Gardener heard them chatting, as they looked this way and that. Presently they returned with what they had found. Little Prue climbed up in his lap.

"Look at mine first!" she said, holding them out, and fanning herself with her little hat.

Davy sat down by them, and looked his collection over to be sure they were right.

"Well, Prue, let's see what you have," began the Chief Gardener. "One peach leaf--that's simple enough. Then here's a lily leaf--that's simple, too. But what's this? It looks as if it came from a Virginia creeper. But where's the rest of it? That's only part of a leaf."

"I told Prue that," said Davy, "and I brought a whole one for one of my compound leaves."

Davy held up what he had brought. The Chief Gardener took the stem of the Virginia creeper. Branching from it were five little stems with a small leaf on each. Prue had taken one of these to be a complete leaf, when it was really only a part of one compound leaf divided into five parts.

"You see, Prue, there is only one stem that joins the main stalk," explained the Chief Gardener. "Whatever branches out from that stem is a part of that leaf. What else have you brought, Davy?"

Davy held up a blackberry leaf, and the leaf of a tomato.

"Those are both right," said the Chief Gardener. "The blackberry has three parts like the bean, and the tomato has a good many parts. There are some leaves that are compounded as many as four times--each little stem being compounded over and over until there are hundreds of little parts, and yet all are connected with the main leaf-stem which joins the stalk or branch, making really only one leaf. Of course, it is not always easy to tell about leaves, any more than about flowers. Sometimes shapes are so peculiar that it is almost impossible to tell just what they are. Pine-needles are leaves, but it is hard to tell whether they are simple or compound, and it would be hard to tell whether the pine was an Exogen or an Endogen if we had only the needles to go by."

"But you haven't told us how to tell that by the leaves at all," said Davy. "That is what we started to find out."

"That's so, Davy. It's hard to keep to the subject in botany. There are so many things, and all so interesting."

The Chief Gardener took up the lily leaf and that of the blackberry, and held them up to the light.

"Do you see the difference?" he asked.

"Why, yes," said Prue, "the blackberry is all criss-crossy, and the lily leaf runs straight and smooth."

"Those are the veins," said Davy; "I heard Mamma say so."

"Yes, they are the veins," nodded the Chief Gardener, "and when they form a network, or run criss-crossy, as Prue says, it means that the plant is an Exogen. When they run side by side smoothly, as they do in corn and grass, it means that the plant is an Endogen. There are a few of both kinds which do not quite follow this rule, like the pine-tree, which is an Exogen, but has its little straight-grained needles, or like smilax, which has netted leaves, but is an Endogen."

II

SOMETIMES I THINK PLANTS CAN SEE AND HEAR

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?"

The Chief Gardener picked up a red clover leaf, and pointed to a little thin pale-green husk where the stem joined the main stalk.

"Those are stipules," he said. "In the clover they grow together, as one. The stipules are a part of the outside of the leaf-bud. When the bud opens, and the leaf goes out into the world, the stipules stay behind. Sometimes they are like little leaves, and take up air for the plant, just as the leaves do. Sometimes they almost take the place of leaves, and are quite large. Sometimes they are very tiny, and some plants have no stipules at all."

"But leaves have veins, too," said Davy.

"Those are parts of the blade. The blade has ribs--they make a framework which holds it together; also veins--the fine threads which help to carry the sap. You see, plants are a good deal like ourselves, and live much in the same way. Some leaves have only one strong rib through the center--a sort of a backbone. Some have as many as six or seven."

They talked about these things, and looked at the different leaves and stems. Then they spoke of the stalks of different plants, and the Chief Gardener explained how the tender stalk of the lowliest plant, that of the tall twining vine, and the trunk of the giant oak, were all one one and the same, only different in kind. Each came at some time from a tiny seed. Each put forth buds and leaves and branches. Each was made to withstand the storm--the oak by its strength, the vine by its fast hold on the wall or lattice, the tender plant through its lowliness.

"Oh," said Davy suddenly, "that makes me think of something. Our Virginia creeper on the front lattice has three ways to climb."

"What are they, Davy?"

"Why, it twists, for one way."

"Twines, you mean."

"Yes, twines, and then it has little curlers, like a grape-vine."

"Tendrils, they are called, Davy."

"And little clingers, like an ivy."

"Feet, you should say. Yes, I have noticed that. A lattice is not very well suited to a Virginia creeper, and ours has to try every way known to vines, to hold on. I have never known all three ways on one vine before. But vines are very curious things. Sometimes I think they can see and hear. I know they can feel, for a honeysuckle shoot will grow perfectly straight until it touches something that can be climbed. Then it will begin to twist so fast you can almost see it."

"But why do you think they can see and hear?" asked little Prue.

"I don't know that I do really think so, but I have tried every way I can think of to keep those morning-glories of yours from running up my little pear-tree. I have pushed them away, and tied them away, and I have even cut some of them away. But if I turn my back for a day, or even a half a day, there is one of them starting up the stalk, or, at least, reaching out for it as hard as ever it can."

Little Prue laughed, and ran over to see. Yes, there it was--a fuzzy green shoot half-way up the little pear-tree, and three more reaching out in the same direction.

"A vine will grow in the direction of a tree or shrub, if it is half way across the garden from it. Whether it hears or sees, or, perhaps, smells it, I do not know. Some vines will turn out of their way for a drink."

"For a drink! Oh, Papa!"

"Yes, certain melon vines. In dry weather they will turn to find a pan of water set several feet away. I suppose they can sense the moisture from it."

The children talked the rest of the afternoon about these curious things. They found where a scarlet runner had traveled several feet through the grass to reach a peach-tree, and had climbed far up into its branches. Then Davy happened to remember the story about the vines which the Chief Gardener had told them during the winter, and told it all over to little Prue--how the honeysuckle had laughed at the scarlet runner and the morning-glory, and had been punished by being made to twine to the left, away from the sun, instead of to the right, toward it, like the morning-glory and the bean. So the happy summer day passed, and in the cool of the evening big Prue came out to watch the sun go down, and in the pleasant arbor they all had tea together.

III

THERE ARE PLANTS WHICH DO NOT BLOOM

BUT during the last two weeks of August the Chief Gardener and big Prue and little Prue and Davy all went to the seashore, which was not far away. They lived in a pretty cottage near the beach, and there were meadows behind that stretched away to the blue hills. Davy and Prue loved the sea, with all its curious shells and star-fishes and other wonderful creatures. They loved the white sand, where they found these things, and where the great waves billowed and broke over them when they bathed on hot afternoons. They loved the meadows, too, for here there were birds building in the grass, and flowers unlike any in their gardens, and little streams of clear water that went singing to the sea.

It was when they came from the meadow one afternoon, that they hurried to the Chief Gardener with the little basket which they always carried.

"We have found some things," said Davy, "and want you to look at them."

The Chief Gardener took the basket. On top were some mushrooms--two kinds. One had whity-brown tops, and was pink or brown or almost black underneath, while the other had yellow tops with white spots on them, and was very pale underneath. The Chief Gardener looked sharply at the children when he saw these yellow mushrooms.

"Go and wash your hands, quickly," he said, "and I hope neither of you have put your hands to your mouth since you touched these."

"I haven't," said Davy, "and I picked the yellow ones."

"They are deadly poison," said the Chief Gardener, "they are called the Amanita, and even to touch the tongue with your fingers after handling them might make you very ill. The others are meadow mushrooms and harmless. But even they could not be eaten after being in the basket with the Amanitas."

The children ran to wash their hands, and were presently back to ask questions. Meantime the Chief Gardener had found a lot of beautiful moss and ferns in the bottom of the basket, and some lichens, which the children had gathered from a rocky cliff not far away.

"Papa, _aren't_ mushrooms toad-stools, and _don't_ they build them to sit on, in pleasant weather, and to get under, when it rains?"

This was little Prue, and she was quite excited.

"I think they are some kind of plants," said Davy, "but I don't see where the flowers are, or how they make seeds."

"How about the ferns?" asked the Chief Gardener. "Did you find any flowers on the ferns?"

"No, but we found seeds."

Davy turned one of the fern leaves over, and, sure enough, there were a lot of little brown seeds under the ends of some of the leaflets. Then the Chief Gardener turned over one of the meadow mushrooms, and divided the little layers beneath with the tip of his pencil.

"That is where the mushroom keeps its seeds, too," he said. "We do not call them seeds, though, but spores. Fern seeds are called spores, also."

"But toads do sit under mushrooms, don't they?" insisted little Prue.

"Why, yes, I suppose a great many toads have done that, but they are really plants, as Davy says."

Davy had become thoughtful.

"Are they Exogens?" he asked, "or Endogens? I should think the mushrooms might be Endogens from their stems, and the fern Exogens from their leaves."

"Well, Davy, that is very well said, but they are really neither one. They belong to a great class of their own. Exogens and Endogens are only the two kinds of flowering plants. These mushrooms and ferns and mosses and lichens all belong to the flowerless plants, and are called Crip-tog-a-mous--a very long word, which I do not expect you to remember. The divisions of flowerless plants are too hard a study for little folks, but the plants are all very interesting, and we can gather them, and see how they grow. In fact, I think we will have to call our meadow and our beach your August garden."

"But there isn't anything on the beach," said Prue.

"How about all that seaweed you were gathering yesterday?"

"But does that really grow like our plants on the shore?" asked Davy.