54 NEHEMIAH GREW 



regarded as of fundamental importance. His idea, which is 

 somewhat confusing, is perhaps best understood from his com- 

 parison of plant structure with pillow lace. The "most unfeigned 

 and proper resemblance we can," he writes, " at present make of 

 the whole Body of a Plant, is, To a piece of fin e Bone- Lace, when 

 the Women are working it upon the Cushion, For the Pith, 

 Insertions^, and Parenchyma of the Barque, are all extream Fine 

 and Perfect Lace- Work : the Fibres of the Pith running Hori- 

 zontally, as do the Threds in a Piece of Lace ; and bounding the 

 several Bladders of the Pith and Barque, as the Threds do the 

 several Holes of the Lace ; and making up the Insertions without 

 Bladders, or with very small ones, as the same Threds likewise 

 do the close Parts of the Lace, which they call the Cloth- Work. 

 And lastly, both the Lignous and Aer- Vessels, stand all Perpen- 

 dicular, and so cross to the Horizontal Fibres of all the said 

 Parenchymous Parts ; even as in a Piece of Lace upon the 

 Cushion, the Pins do to the Threds. The Pins being also 

 conceived to be Tubular, and prolonged to any length ; and 

 the same Lace- Work to be wrought many Thousands of times 

 over and over again, to any thickness or hight, according to 

 the hight of any Plant. And this is the true Texture of a 

 Plant? 



Grew thus visualised the inner structure of the plant as a 

 textile fabric, and the analogy between vegetable substance and 

 woven threads seems to have been constantly present in his 

 mind. The same idea also occurs, for instance, in the dedication 

 of his magnum opus, where he says, " one who walks about with 

 the meanest Stick, holds a Piece of Nature's Handicraft, which 

 far surpasses the most elaborate Woof or Needle- Work in the 

 World." 



The notions at which Nehemiah Grew arrived on the subject 

 of the vascular anatomy of plants were more advanced than his 

 ideas on the ultimate nature of the tissues. There is no doubt 

 that the comparison with animal anatomy, which was constantly 

 in his mind, was on the whole helpful, though it led to some 

 errors. The following paragraph, which occurs in the Cosmologia 

 Sacra, seems to be an instance in which the analogy with the 



1 Medullary rays. 



