240 Phytotomy founded [Book ii. 



effort to give as clear a representation as possible of what he 

 sees. Though he too everywhere introduces physiological 

 considerations into his anatomical investigation, yet he keeps 

 himself free from many preconceptions which his successors 

 imported in this way into phytotomy. To mention one point 

 by anticipation, he avoided the erroneous notion so common 

 at a later time, and first definitely removed by von Mohl in 

 1828, that the cell-walls must have visible openings to serve 

 for the movement of the sap. 



Grew's work, as has been said, separates into two main 

 divisions; the first, 'The anatomy of plants begun, with a 

 general account of vegetation founded thereupon/ was printed 

 in 167 1, rnd contains a brief and rapid account of the general 

 anatomy and physiology of plants in forty-nine folio pages. 

 Then the anatomy of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and 

 seeds appeared as separate treatises in the following years up 

 to 1682. We may pass over the chemical researches embodied 

 in this work and the enquiries into the colours, taste and smell 

 of plants, as well as the previously issued treatise, ' An idea of 

 a philosophical history of plants,' which, as it was first laid 

 before the Royal Society in 1672, we may imagine to have 

 been intended as a counterpart to Malpighi's 'Anatomes 

 plantarum idea,' though it is very different in character and 

 admits much that is foreign to vegetable anatomy and 

 physiology. 



With Grew as with Malpighi the main point of enquiry is 

 not the individual cell, but the histology ; after distinguishing, 

 like Malpighi, between the parenchymatous tissue and the 

 longitudinally elongated fibrous forms, the true vessels and 

 the sap-conducting canals, he is chiefly bent on explaining the 

 combination of these tissues in the different organs of the 

 plant; and in this point he is superior to Malpighi both in 

 carefulness of description and in the beauty of his delineations. 

 Grew's numerous figures on copper plates, more carefully 

 executed than Malpighi's, give in fact so clear an idea especially 



