at last his collection
consisted of six.

There was one collection of _leaves_; Henry made it. His object was to
see how many different-shaped leaves he could get. He did not regard the
little differences which exist between the leaves of the same tree, but
only the essential differences of shape; such as between the leaf of the
oak and of the maple. Two or three pages were devoted to leaves of
forest-trees, and they looked very beautiful indeed. Leaves, being
naturally flat, can be pressed very easily, and they generally preserve
their colors pretty well. One page was devoted to the leaves of
evergreens, such as the pine, fir, spruce, hemlock; and they made a
singular appearance, they were so small and slender. A little sprig of
pine leaves was put in the centre, and the others around. Then there
were the leaves of fruit-trees and plants, such as the apple, pear,
peach, plum, raspberry, strawberry, currant, gooseberry, &c., arranged
by themselves; and there were half a dozen pages devoted to
bright-colored leaves, gathered in the autumn, after the frost had come.
These pages looked very splendidly. The names of the plants to which all
these leaves belonged were written under them, and also the name given
by botanists to indicate the particular shape of the leaf; these names
the children found in books of botany. Such, for instance, as
_serrated_, which means notched all around the edge with teeth like a
saw, like the strawberry leaf; and _cordate_, which means shaped like a
heart, as the lilac leaf is, and many others.

There was also a collection of brakes that Rollo made, which the
children liked to look over very much. There is a great variety in the
forms of brakes, or ferns, and yet they are all regular and beautiful,
and are so flat that they are easily pressed and preserved. But of all
the botanical collections which were formed and deposited in this
museum, one of the prettiest was a little collection of _petals_, which
Rollo's mother made. Petals are the colored leaves of flowers,--those
which form the flower itself. Sometimes the flower cannot be pressed
very well whole, and yet, if you take off one of its petals, you find
that that will press very easily, and preserve its color finely. So
Rollo's mother, every day, when she saw a flower, would put one of the
leaves into a book, and after a time she had a large collection,--red,
and white, and blue, and yellow, and brown, in fact, of almost every
color. The