chap, i.] by Malpighi and Grew. 235 



the same time to many errors, which in their turn often misled 

 the anatomist. At present, when vegetable anatomy has 

 separated itself more than is desirable from physiology, that is, 

 from the investigation of the functions of organs, it is difficult, 

 nay impossible, to give the reader a brief account of the con- 

 tents of these two books which form an epoch in the science. 

 I must confine myself to noticing a few chief points, which 

 are historically connected with the further development of 

 phytotomy, though some of these are just the questions to 

 which Malpighi and Grew only gave occasional attention, and 

 which it is therefore a little unjust to them to bring into 

 prominent notice. I shall recur to the physiological portion of 

 their writings in the third book of this history, confining myself 

 here to that which concerns the structural relations of plants. 



The phytotomical work of Marcello Malpighi * appeared 

 under the title ' Anatome Plantarum,' and to it was added 

 a treatise on hens' eggs during the process of incubation 

 (1675). The phytotomical portion of the book separates into 

 two main divisions, the first of which, the 'Anatomes Plan- 

 tarum idea,' was, as stated above, completed in 167 1, and 

 contains a general abstract and survey of Malpighi's views on 

 the structure and functions of vegetable organs in fourteen-and- 

 a-half folio pages ; the second and much larger portion illus- 

 trates in detail by numerous examples and with the help of 

 many copper-plates the views expressed in the first part ; 

 it will answer our purpose best to turn principally to the 

 connected expression of the author's views in the first part. 



He begins his remarks with the anatomy of the stem, and 

 as the rind first attracts the eye, he takes it first. The outer 



1 Marcello Malpighi, born at Crcvalcuore near Bologna in 1638, became 

 Doctor of Medicine in 1653, and after 1656 was Professor in Bologna, Pisa, 

 Messina, and a second time in Bologna; in 1691 he was named Physician to 

 Innocent XII. He died in 1694. On his services to comparative anatomy, 

 and the anatomy of the human body, see the ' Biographic Universale ' and 

 Carus, ' Geschichte der Zoologie,' p. 395. 



