20 INTRODUCTION. 



of mankind, and having dared to disengage himself 

 from the fetters of academical authority, denounced, 

 as vain and idle, the visionary speculations of the 

 schools, and boldly pointed out the necessity of a 

 complete and thorough revolution in all pre- 

 established methods of study ; recommending the 

 more tedious, but yet more successful method of 

 analytical and inductive investigation,* and pro- 

 claiming truth to be but the image of nature.^ 



But to whatever cause it is to be attributed, the fact 

 is, that two different sets of phytological experi- 

 ments modelled upon the principles and method 

 pointed out by Bacon, and with a view to elucidate 

 the phenomena of vegetation, were instituted about 

 nearly the same time by two celebrated anatomists 

 and accurate observers of nature, residing in dif- 

 ferent countries and having no communication with 

 one another. These naturalists were Grew and 

 Malpighi, the latter an Italian, the former an English 

 physician. For as Gesner and Caesalpinus had been 

 led as it were instinctively to the study of methodi- 

 cal arrangement without any mutual intercourse, so 

 were Grew and Malpighi to the pursuit of phytolo- 

 gical inquiry a circumstance likely to happen at a 

 time when the spirit of true philosophy had begun 

 to diffuse itself among men of speculative habits, 



* Inductio legitima et vera, ipsa clavis est naturae interpreta- 

 tionis. Nov. Org. lib. ii. Aph. x. 



t Scientia nihil aliud cst quam veritatis imago, nam veritas es- 

 sendi et veritas cognoscendi idem sunt. De Aug. Sci. lib. i. 



