Plate 34, Sumach Branch Cut Transversly

Nehemiah Grew, artist

1641–1712

Plate 34, Sumach Branch Cut Transversly, 1682

Portfolio/Series title: The Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Pants, and Several Other Lectures, Read before the Royal Society By Nehemiah Grew M.D. Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the College of Physicians

Material/technique: book

Credit line: Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Department of Special Collections, E52; Courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

Accession number: EL2018.010

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Nehemiah Grew, a leading botanist of his day, researched and wrote extensively about plant anatomy and used the relatively recent invention of the microscope in innovative and influential ways. In his celebrated 1682 publication The Anatomy of Plants, Grew includes 82 intricately detailed etchings illustrating a variety of botanical systems. Before Grew’s innovations, botanists often studied the external shapes of plants but debated about their inner organs. Using a microscope, Grew became the first to identify stamens and pistils as male and female sex organs.