VOL. VI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 66l 



The ingenious and learned author of this book considering with himself, 

 that the anatomy of vegetables has hitherto been little cultivated, though very 

 well deserving the labours of diligent naturalists, has here made a particular 

 inquiry into the constitution and structure of plants, and thereon founded a 

 rational discourse concerning the nature of vegetation. And he advises those 

 that shall think fit to examine his observations, not only that they begin, and 

 so proceed till the end again, with the seed ; but also, that they confine not 

 their inquiries to one time of the year, but to make them in several seasons, 

 wherein the parts of a vegetable may be seen in their several states : and then, 

 that they neglect not the comparative anatomy, confronting several vegetables 

 and their several parts together. 



The method he chuses in the prosecution of this subject, is the method of 

 nature herself, in her continued series of vegetations, proceeding from the seed 

 sown, to the formation of the root, trunk, branch, leaf, flower, fruit ; and 

 lastly, of the seed to be sown again, or in its state of generation. 



Discoursing of the seed as vegetating, he dissects a garden-bean, and shows 

 its two coats ; the foramen in the outer coat ; and what is generally observable 

 of the covers of the seed. This done, he displays the proper seed itself, and 

 therein finds three constituent and as it were organical parts of the bean, viz. 

 the main body, always divided into two lobes, though in some few other seeds 

 into more ; and two other appendant to the basis of the bean ; whereof the one 

 is called by him the radicle, being that which, on the vegetation of the seed, 

 becomes the root ; the other the plume, which becomes the trunk of the 



sity for some years, he returned, after taking the degree of doctor of physic, to London, where he 

 became a candidate for an honorary fellowship in the college of physicians, and was admitted on the 

 30th of Septembei-, 168O. He obtained extensive practice j was elected a fellow of the Royal So- 

 ciety J and, on tlie deatli of IVIr. Oldenburg, succeeded to the office of secretary ; in consequence 

 of which he carried on the publication of ihe Philosophical Transactions for a considerable time. He 

 also drew up a catalogue of the articles in the museum of the society, which he finished in folio 

 under the title of Museum Regalis Societatis. This publication (though by no means free from 

 mistakes) is, upon thew^hole, a work of very considerable merit, and is remarkable for an ingenious 

 scheme or disposition of shells. 



To this is generally appended a work entitled The Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts, 

 being several lectures read before the Royal Society in \676. The work however by vthich Grew 

 is most deservedly celebrated, is his Anatomy of Plants, in which he has shown a wonderful degree of 

 ingenuity. This work is accompanied by very numerous and well executed engravings, and may be 

 considered as one of tlie most curious performances of the seventeenth centur)\ 



Another very celebrated publication of this author, is the Cosmologia Sacra, or " A Discourse of the 

 Universe, as it is the Creature and Kingdom of God" This was chiefly composed to demonstrate the 

 truth and excellence of tlie sacred writings. 



Dr. Grew died, after a very short illness, on the 25th of March 1711. 



