168 THE MINUTE ANATOMISTS 



Within the coat Grew finds the main body of the 

 seed, and notes the radicle, plumule ("plume") and 

 two seed-lobes. Some seeds, like those of corn, are not 

 divided, but entire ; and some few, he says, are divided 

 into more than two lobes.'^ The embryo is covered with 

 a cuticle,^ within which is found the parenchyma,* which 

 is not " a mere concreted juice," but " a body very 

 curiously organised, consisting of an infinite number of 

 extreme small bladders." He finds branching vessels in 

 all parts of the embryo, which appear in sections as 

 specks ; and he figures very carefully the vessels of the 

 seed-lobes. He is aware that in some seedlings (lupine, 

 &c.) the seed-lobes turn green, and push into the air, 

 while in others (bean, &c.) they remain shut up in the 

 seed ; he knows what becomes of the plume and radicle, 

 and recognises that the seed-lobes are only a particular 

 kind of leaves (" dissimilar leaves," he calls them). 



Grew's clear and useful account of the structure of the 

 bean-seed and seedling is sadly marred by his guesses as 

 to the function of the parts. We have noticed what he 

 says about fermentation ; his explanation of the sap in 

 the vessels is equally baseless. It comes, he says, from 

 without, filters through the seed-coats, becoming fer- 

 mented in the inner one, enters the parenchyma, and so 

 gains the vessels of the radicle and plumule. 



Plant Cells 

 Grew, as well as Malpighi, was aware that a young 

 plant is wholly composed of cells, which he compares to 



1 His example is not a pine, but the common cress, whose seed-leaves are 

 three-lobed. 



'In his Anatomy of Seeds (ATiat. of Plants, p. 207) Grew shows that in a 

 soaked bean the cuticle can be separated ; if examined by the microscope, it is 

 seen to consist of cells (" bladders ") " all radiated towards the centre." 



' The word is not new ; Erasistratus had applied it nearly 2000 years before 

 to a substance supposed to be poured out from the veins. 



