52 NEHEMIAH GREW 



the foot we find the note " Air- Vessels out of Parenchyma, 

 transformed, as Caterpillars to Flys," shewing that Grew had 

 arrived at some idea of the formation of vessels. The whole 

 section of the book to which this page belongs is very much 

 remodelled in the 1682 edition, but the analogy just quoted is 

 introduced and Grew proceeds accurately to describe the origin 

 of vessels. " And as the Pith it self, by the Rupture and 

 Shrinking up of several Rows of Bladders, doth oftentimes 

 become Tubulary : So is it also probable, that in the other 

 Parenchymoiis Parts, one single Row or File of Bladders evenly 

 and perpendicularly piled ; may sometimes, by the shrinking up 

 of their Horizontal Fibres, all regularly break one [sic] into another 

 and so make one continued Cavity!' 



I have passed over these three treatises in a somewhat 

 cursory fashion, because Nehemiah Grew's botanical work is 

 perhaps better studied in his final pronouncement on the sub- 

 ject, a folio volume published in 1682 under the title of "The 

 Anatomy of Plants. With an Idea of a Philosophical History 

 of Plants. And several other Lectures, Read before the Royal 

 Society." This work consists of second editions of his three 

 earlier treatises, largely rewritten, with a great deal of additional 

 matter, including a section on the anatomy of flowers, and many 

 new figures. Some of the plates are excellent, and especially 

 remarkable for the way in which Grew shews the anatomy in 

 drawings which represent the organ in three dimensions (PI. 7). 

 He himself laid great stress on this. In his own words, " In the 

 Plates, for the clearer conception of the Part described, I have 

 represented it, generally, as entire, as its being magnified to 

 some good degree, would bear.... So, for instance, not the 

 Barque, Wood, or Pith of a Root or Tree, by it self; but at 

 least, some portion of all three together : Whereby, both their 

 Texture, and also their Relation one to another, and the Patrick 

 of the whole, may be observed at one View!' One cannot help 

 wishing that botanists of the present day would more often take 

 the trouble to illustrate their papers on this principle. 



It is as a plant anatomist that Grew is chiefly famous, and 

 it is important to try to realise exactly how far his conception 

 of the anatomical structure of plants has been confirmed by 



