What does par avion mean?
We often see these words stamped on envelopes, Often the words fir Pail are stamped alongside the Par Avion. This is not surprising., for it means that the letter is traveling by air. Par Avion is French for by air..
Kurt Hanger, age d 9. of Philadelphia, Pa. for his question:
What is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?
Andy says, do you know the difference between a dog and an animal? All dogs are animals, of course, but not all animals are dogs. The difference, between a fruit and vegetable is much the same; in one sense all fruits are vegetables because they all belong to the vegetable kingdom. But not all vegetables are fruits.
Our word vegetable comes to us from a much older word which meant to be active or alive, When you consider that our vast fields of tall corn have grown from little seeds in the few months of summer. then we must agree that this part of the vegetable kingdom is very active indeed it is, very busy growing, In this, Its widest meaning, the word vegetable includes every plant and every part of every plant that grows. All are members of the great vegetable kingdom:
Sometimes a word seems to have too much work to do. Millions of different growing things are members of the vegetable kingdom. So we group them as trees, shrubs or plants. Vie give separate names to each different kind. We speak of flowering plants, weeds and crops. All these different groupings help us to make ourselves understand which members of the vegetable kingdom we are talking about. _
And for one group of plants we have borrowed the name of the whole kingdom- the vegetables. Maybe it was because this is the group of plants most important to us, When the Farm Bureau speaks of vegetables it may mean all our crops, beans, peas, potatoes the food our animals eat hay and corn the plants we put to use cotton, wood, wood pulp.
Among this group of vegetables there are plants which seem still more important to us. These are the plants and parts of plants which find their way to our dinner tables beets, potatoes, salads, squash and artichokes. We use the same overworked word to name them all.
Our word fruit comes to us from an older word which meant to enjoy a very fine meaning when you think of pears and peaches. The botanists use the same word to describe the seed and seed covering of any member of the vegetable kingdom. The apple, with its seeds, core and delicious pulp is a fruit. So are the pear and the peach.
A walnut is a seed with a hard covering, but it too is a fruit. So is a pod of peas, a bunch of berries or an ear of grain. All of these fruits are parts of plants, and therefore members of the vegetable kingdom, Some of them are vegetables in the special sense that they are grown especially for our use, A few of them are vegetables in the very special sense of arriving in time for dinner, The tomato is a fruit and a vegetable,, so are the squash and the eggplant.