58 Greek Biology 



a single root and have many side-growths above from the 

 [single] stem . . . while the cereals have many roots and send 

 up many shoots, but these have no side-shoots.' 1 



There can be no doubt that here is a piece of minute 

 observation on the behaviour of germinating seeds. The dis- 

 tinction between dicotyledons and monocotyledons is accurately 

 set forth, though the stress is laid not so much on the coty- 

 ledonous character of the seed as on the relation of root and 

 shoot. In the dicotyledons root and shoot are represented as 

 springing from the same point, and in monocotyledons from 

 opposite poles in the seed. 



No further effective work was done on the germinating seed 

 until the invention of the microscope, and the appearance of 

 the work of Highmore (i6i3-85), 2 and the much more searching 

 investigations of Malpighi (1628-94) 3 anc ^ Grew (1641-1712) 4 

 after the middle of the seventeenth century. The observations 

 of Theophrastus are, however, so accurate, so lucid, and so 

 complete that they might well be used as legends for the plates 

 of these writers two thousand years after him. 



^ 



Much has been written as to the knowledge of the sex of 

 plants among the ancients. It may be stated that of the sexual 

 elements of the flower no ancient writer had any clear idea. 

 Nevertheless, sex is often attributed to plants, and the simile 

 of the Loves of Plants enters into works of the poets. Plants 

 are frequently described as male and female in ancient bio- 

 logical writings also, and Pliny goes so far as to say that some 

 students considered that all herbs and trees were sexual. 5 Yet 

 when such passages can be tested it will be found that these 

 so-called males and females are usually different species. In 



1 Historia plantarum, viii. I, i. 



2 Nathaniel Highmore, A History of Generation, London, 1651. 



3 Marcello Malpighi, Anatome pi ant arum, London, 1675. 



4 Nehemiah Grew, Anatomy of Vegetables begun, London, 1672, 



5 Pliny, Naturalis historia, xiii. 4. 



