Nehemiah Grew 235 



seeds. The book was richly illustrated. Grew undoubtedly 

 saw for the first time many structural features in plants, 

 and although he was not always successful in interpreting 

 their functions, he added greatly to our knowledge. His 

 description of the bean-seed might still be used in a modern 

 Elementary Biology Class. He notes the cotyledons, and 

 states that the foramen (micropyle) " is not a hole casually 

 made, or by the breaking off of the stalk; but designedly 

 formed for the uses hereafter mentioned." He recalls that 

 when squeezed a bean seed gives rise to many small bubbles 

 through " the foramen." He notes the radicle, the plumule, 

 and the two seed-lobes, and is aware that the latter are a 

 particular kind of leaf " dissimilar leaves " he calls them, 

 and he finds that their parenchyma consists of an infinite 

 number of extremely small " bladders." He also notes 

 elsewhere that rows or files of " bladders " piled perpendicu- 

 larly one above each other at times break in upon one another, 

 and so make a " continued cavity." He recognized and 

 understood the resin passages in a pine tree, and describes 

 the medullary rays. He dwells upon the use of hooks in 

 climbing plants, and the fact that the various whorls of a 

 flower are arranged alternately. He invented the term 

 " parenchyma " and others still in use. He was aware of the 

 existence of stomata, and considers they were either " for 

 the better avulation of superfluous sap or for the -admission 

 of air." To the flower itself he paid particular attention, 

 but failed to grasp the use of pollen. He was, however, the 

 first to point out that flowers are sexual, but unfortunately, 

 although he is fairly definite on the subject, he made few 

 experiments. He also described fully and completely the 

 sporangia of a fern. 



Grew, like Ray, was a man of great piety, simplicity, 

 and undoubted modesty, and he considered that both 

 " plants and animals came at first out of the same Hand, 

 and were therefore the contrivance of the same Wisdom." 

 Hence he endeavoured to find analogies and homologies 

 between animals and vegetables, which later work could 

 not endorse. Like most of his contemporaries he interested 

 himself in the ascent of the sap, which he mainly attributed 

 to capillarity. He stated that the green colour of a plant 



