Did you ever take a feather in your hand and look at it? Did you notice how the quill keeps the feather in shape and makes it strong?

Now find the leaf of an apple tree. Hold it before your eyes and let the light shine through it.

Do you see the large rib running along the middle of the leaf? Do you see the fine ribs on each side of the large rib? Does not the large rib make you think of the quill of a feather?

The ribs of a leaf have fine passages or pipes in them through which the sap flows. These passages are called veins, and the large rib is called a midvein. When a leaf has one strong midvein like the quill of a feather, it is said to be feather-veined.

Let us go out of doors and find leaves that are shaped like feathers.

There is a peach tree. Pick a leaf and look at it. Yes, the peach leaf is feather-veined. Now go to the pear tree. "These leaves look like the apple leaves," you say.

Here is a dandelion plant growing in the grass. Take a leaf in your hand and look at its ragged edges. There is one straight rib or vein along the middle of the leaf. And so you see that the dandelion leaf is also feather-veined.

You can find feather-veined leaves on the plants in the garden and on the flower stems that grow in our window boxes. And you can also find feather-veined leaves on the weeds that grow by the side of the road.

Look again at the apple leaf. Do you see the fine network of veins? Now take up a leaf of grass and hold it in the light. Can you see a network of veins in it? No, the grass leaf has straight veins.

All the grass blades are long and narrow. Have you ever seen any other leaves that were long and narrow like the grass?

But what is this leaf under the maple tree? "It is a maple leaf," you say. This leaf is not shaped like a feather.

Hold out your hand and stretch out your fingers. Does not the maple leaf look as if it had fingers, too? We may call the maple leaf a hand-shaped leaf. Perhaps we can find more hand-shaped leaves. Let us go to the currant bushes. Yes, these also have hand-shaped leaves.

One of the strangest leaves in the world is shaped like a pitcher. It has a lid that opens and shuts. Some leaves of this kind hold more than a cup of water.

There are leaves shaped like hearts and leaves shaped like arrowheads. And there are many other wonderful leaves which we may see if we keep our eyes open.