Grew was
the co-founder of plant anatomy with Malpighi. He was
born in Coventry, England, and was a practicing doctor
first in Coventry and then in London. He began work on
plant anatomy in 1664 with the object of comparing
plant and animal tissues.
He read an essay before the Royal Society of London
in 1670 which was published one year later. Malphighi
who had been working independently on the same subject
in Italy, sent his work also the Royal Society and an
abstract was read at the December, 1671 meeting where
Grew's manuscript, now in print, was "laid on the
table." Both works then bear the same date although
Grew is entitled to priority.
The second part of Grew's treatise appeared
appeared in May, 1672, and a third in the spring of
1674. The object of the work is indicated by grew's
preface, "by thus comparing of them (i.e., the several
plants or parts of plants) we shall be able more
exactly to state the orders and degrees of their
affinities; better to understand both the causes and
ends of their varieties and more probably to
conjecture their natures and virtues." Thus, he
approached botany from the medical standpoint (as in
Herbals) but it was his knowledge of anatomy which
opened his mind to the possibilities of similar work
with the bodies of plants as the subject.
His fundamental thesis was that every plant organ
consists of two "organical parts essentially
distinct," that is, a "Pithy part" and the ligneous
part or parts analagous to these. In the seed, "the
pithy part" is composed of "parenchyma" a term first
used by Grew. He described also rather correctly the
stages of germination in seeds although the underlying
physiology was hopelessly confused.
He invested terms "radicle" for embryonic root and
used term "plume" for "plumule". He called cotyledons
"leaves" but recognized that they might in some cases
appear above ground and turn green.
He observed monocot stems with scattered bundles
and lack of distinct bark and pith; resin ducts in
cortex of pine stem; wings and "feathers" on seeds and
fruit; protection and economy of space gained by
inbrication of bud scales; folding rolling of leaves
in buds; buds formed months before they expand; "a
bulb is, as it were, a great bud under ground"; saw
tulip flower present in bulb in September; noted that
pollen grains were "bee-bread"; believed micropyle
allowed water to enter seed and cause germination.
He made the first successful attempt to extract
chlorophyl from leaves using oil as a solvent. His
important work was Anatomy of Plants (1682).
There were no important advances on the ideas of Grew
and Malphighi for more than a century.
