London: W. Rawlins, 1682. First thus. Folio (305 x 188 mm). With 83 engraved plates, of which 5 folding, woodcut headpieces and initials. Recent speckled calf, 5 raised bands, covers ruled in blind, board edges with foliate roll in gilt, edges speckled red. Eighteenth-century armorial bookplates of the Forrestal family on front pastedown and title page verso; contemporary annotation to sig. 2U3v. Contents browned and sporadically foxed, damp stains to outer margins of approximately first half, a handful of small perforations to plates and closed tears to folds, long closed tear to sig. H3, worming to front free endpaper and first leaf: a very good copy.

A pioneer in the field of plant anatomy, Grew was the first to explore how plants develop organs and tissues, and in what ways they reproduce. Grew himself seemed to understand that he was breaking entirely new ground; and he proudly presented his work in a series of lectures to the Royal Academy of Sciences, to which he was elected a member in 1673. "Of what antiquity the Anatomy of Animals is, and how great have been its Improvements of later years is well known. That of Vegetables is a subject matter which from all ages to this day hath not only lain uncultivated; but for ought I know, except some observations from our country-men, hath not been so much as thought upon." Grew's text sets out as a corrective, and from it has sprung a diverse and important field of scientific inquiry. The present work pulls together six of his most influential work at the request of the Royal Society, reissuing several with revisions to reflect the most up to date knowledge of the field. Included in the text are An Idea of the Philosophical History of Plants (second edition), The Anatomy of Plants Begun (second edition), The Anatomy of Roots (second edition), The Anatomy of Trunks (second edition), The Anatomy of Leaves, Flowers, Fruits and Seeds, and Several Lectures Read Before the Royal Society, each with its own special title page.

“The birth of microscopic anatomy of plants” (Horblit).

ESTC R10887. Horblit 43b; Hunt 362; Nissen, BBI 758; Norman 946; Pritzel 3557; Wellcome III, p. 164. (Item #8112)