NEHEMIAH GREW'S "ANATOMY OF PLANTS" 157 



Walnut ; various types of vernation ; the form of pollen 

 grains, and so on. But perhaps the most remarkable drawing 

 is that illustrating the anatomy of a Corin branch. A seg- 

 ment of the stem is shown on a large scale, cut so as to 

 expose both radial and transverse sections, and with part of 

 the cortex removed, so as to reveal the rays and wood as 

 seen in tangential section. 



The subject of the tastes, scents, and odours of plants 

 seems to have exercised Nehemiah Grew a good deal. Tastes, 

 he tells us, should be distinguished in their degrees, and these 

 " may be extended . . . with easie distinction from One to Five : 

 So the Root of Sorrel, is Bitter in the first: of Dock, in the 

 second; of Dog-Rose , in the third; of Dandelyon, in the fourth; 

 of Gentian, in the fifth. . . . All kinds of Tastes, in all their 

 Degrees, and in differing Numbers, may be variously Com- 

 pounded together : ... in Aloes, Bitter and Sweet ; the one in 

 the fifth, the other in the first Degree ; as upon an unprejudiced 

 tryal may be perceived." It is a matter for thankfulness that 

 the power of drawing these subtle distinctions is no longer 

 recognised as an essential qualification in a botanist ! Grew 

 pours scorn upon the methods adopted by the uninitiated in 

 the attempt to produce variations in flower colour. To do 

 this, he says, " by putting the Colour desired in the Flower, 

 into the Body or Root of the Plant, is vainly talked of by 

 some ; being such a piece of cunning, as for the obteining 

 a painted face, to eat a good store of white and Red Lead." 



Grew by no means confined himself to morphology, but 

 carried out some physiological experiments and suggested many 

 others. For instance, he placed a plant upside down in a box 

 of mould with its shoot sticking out of a hole in the bottom, and 

 found that the stem curved up, showing that the upward growth 

 of this organ does not depend merely on a desire to be in the 

 air. He held very definite views as to the ascent of the sap ; 

 and the " ladder hypothesis," a theory closely resembling his, 

 had some vogue at a later date. He believed the rise of the sap 

 was caused by a joint action of parenchyma and wood, the 

 sap ascending a certain distance in the wood, and then a certain 

 distance in the parenchyma, then back to the wood, and so 

 on in a zigzag. 



A good deal of the Anatomy of Plants is taken up with rather 

 mystical discussions about the " saline principles " of plants, the 



