THE ANATOMY OF PLANTS,

BEGUN. WITH A General Account OF VEGETATION,

Grounded thereupon.

The FIRST BOOK.

Presented in Manuscript to the Royal Society, Sometime before the 11ᵗʰ. of May, 1671. And afterwards in Print, December 7. of the same Year 1671.

By NEHEMJAH GREW M.D. Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the College of Physicians.

The Second Edition.

LONDON, Printed by W. Rawlins, 1682.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM Lord Vi-Count Brouncker, THE PRESIDENT, And to the Council and Fellows OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, The following ANATOMY Is most HUMBLY PRESENTED By the AUTHOR NEHEMJAH GREW.

TO THE Right Reverend JOHN Lord Bishop of CHESTER.

MY LORD,

Hope your pardon, if while you are holding That best of Books in one Hand, I here present some Pages of that of Nature into your other: Especially since Your Lordship knoweth very well, how excellent a Commentary This is on the Former; by which, in part, GOD reads the World his own Definition, and their Duty to him.

But if this Address, my Lord, may be thought congruous, ’tis yet more just; and that I should let Your Lordship, and others know, how much, and how deservedly, I resent Your extraordinary Favours. Particularly, that you were pleased, so far to animate my Endeavours, towards the Publishing the following Observations. Many First Chapter, having now lain dormant, near seven years; and might still, perhaps, have so continued, had not Your Lordships Eye, at length, created Light upon them. In doing which, You have given one, amongst those many Tokens, of as well Your readiness to promote Learning and Knowledge by the hands of others; as Your high Abilities to do it by Your Own: Both which, are so manifest in Your Lordship, that, like the first Principles of Mathematical Science, they are not so much to be asserted, because known and granted by all.

The Consideration whereof, my Lord, may make me not only Just, in owning of your Favours; but also most Ambitious of your Patronage: Which yet, to bespeak, I must confess, I cannot well. Not that I think, what is Good and Valuable, is always its own best Advocate: for I know, that the Censures of Men, are humorous, and variable; and that one Age, must have leave to frown on those Books, which another, will do nothing less than kiss and embrace. But, chiefly, for this Reason, Lest I should so much as seem desirous, of Your Lordships Solliciting my Cause, as to all I have said. For as it is your Glory, that you like not so to shine, as to put out the least Star; so were it to Your Dishonour, to borrow Your Name, to illustrate the Spots, though of the most conspicuous. I am,

My Lord,

Your Lordships

Most Obliged,

And

Most Humble Servant

NEHEMJAH GREW.

Coventry, June 10. 1671.