Unaware of that the professor was nearby, Nadia muttered to herself instructions from the book ("The ripe berries yield on expression 40 to 50 percent of juice of a green colour, which on keeping turns, however, gradually to a reddish or purplish brown colour, on account of the acidification of the saccharine and mucilaginous matter.")

Then looked at her own plants and wrote down that the color it was presenting was green, ripe... maybe quite a dark green. Which meant its level of acidification was probably raising. She sprinkled some more water to help, well, digestion. She went back to look for direction and found this specie can be easily raised from seed in autumn, soon after the berries are ripe, usually about September, but if left too late the berries soften and will not bear carriage well. So if this plants were receintly planted, that must mean they are in that stage of maturity, she razoned while her own plant purred appreciatively. Dear, it almost begged for touch, which was not an option. Nadia chuckled.

There was something else and it was that Nadia couldn't perceive the consistance of the berries to tell herself if it had reached that stage of maturity. It was rather hard-looking and not near ripe...

Just then Nadia looked up to notice the professor looking back her way. It startled her some, then Nadia was forced to cough - and the plant seemed offended that Nadia would so rudely interrupt its humming. Nadia gave the professor no more than a side-ways puzzled look before returning her attention back at the Buckthorns. The professor seemed to be re-directing her attention somewhere else anyways.