No. 43. 
Nos. 41 
& 42. 
Guide to an Exhibition of 
and functions of the stamens and pistils in flowers, modestly 
sharing part of the credit with Sir Thomas Millington. Grew, 
however, did not put his observation to proof. This discovery 
was announced to the Society in November 1676, but only 
printed and issued, with the second editions of some previous 
papers, in his Anatomy of Plants^m 1682. Incidentally, from a 
lecture published in the same volume, it is seen that Minerals 
were still divided into Earths, Stones, Ores, Metals, Sulphurs, 
and Salts. 
Grew’s first paper on the structure of Plants had only just 
been printed by the Royal Society in 1671, when that body 
received a communication on the same subject from Marcello 
Malpighi [1628-1694], an illustrious Italian physician and 
naturalist. Malpighi’s memoir was then extended, and printed 
by the Society, in 1675, under the title of Anatome Plantarum. 
In it he gave the earliest account of the circulation of the sap 
and of the nutrition of plants. 
Malpighi had already (1661) confirmed the existence of 
capillary circulation, that had been inferred by Harvey ; had 
given the first distinct idea of the organization of the lungs ; 
had demonstrated the structure of secreting glands ; and made 
several other important discoveries of a like nature, besides 
writing on the microscopical structure of Insects. 
Anthony van Leeuwenhoek [1632-1723], an eminent 
Dutch naturalist, with rough instruments of his own manufac¬ 
ture, made many interesting and important discoveries, such as 
the existence of the Wheel-animalcules (Rotifera) and their 
power of enduring desiccation, the mode of propagation of the 
Green-fly (Aphis), and of the development of many Insects ; 
he also reaffirmed Malpighi’s discovery of capillary circulation, 
displaying it in the tail of the tadpole. His observations were 
mostly communicated in letters to the Royal Society of London 
from 1673 onwards. These were collected and published in a 
series of volumes beginning in 1684. 
MINERALOGY and Geology received further impetus about 
this period, mainly through the studies of the following 
naturalists :— 
Nicolaus Steno [1631-1686], a distinguished Danish 
20 
