caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality field birth_date image article_title name alma_mater
nehemiah grew 25 march 1712 london mancetter parish , warwickshire english physiology 26 september 1641 nehemiah_grew . png nehemiah grew
 nehemiah grew leiden university
nehemiah grew

nehemiah grew -lrb- 26 september 164125 march 1712 -rrb- was an english plant anatomist and physiologist , very famously known as the '' `` father of plant anatomy '' '' .
grew was the only son of obadiah grew -lrb- 1607 -- 1688 -rrb- , nonconformist divine and vicar of st michaels , coventry , and was born in warwickshire .
he graduated at pembroke college , cambridge in 1661 , and ten years later took the degree of m.d. at leiden university , his thesis being `` disputatio medico-physica de liquore nervoso '' .
he began observations on the anatomy of plants in 1664 , and in 1670 his essay , `` the anatomy of vegetables begun '' , was communicated to the royal society by bishop wilkins , on whose recommendation he was in the following year elected a fellow .
in 1672 , when the essay was published , he settled in london , and soon acquired an extensive practice as a physician .
in 1673 he published his `` idea of a phytological history '' , which consisted of papers he had communicated to the royal society in the preceding year , and in 1677 he succeeded henry oldenburg as secretary of the society .
he edited the `` philosophical transactions '' in 1678-1679 , and in 1681 he published by request a descriptive catalogue of the rarities preserved at gresham college , with which were printed some papers he had read to the royal society on the `` comparative anatomy of stomachs and guts '' .
in 1682 appeared his great work on the `` anatomy of plants '' , which also was largely a collection of previous publications .
it was divided into four books , `` anatomy of vegetables begun '' , `` anatomy of roots '' , `` anatomy of trunks '' and `` anatomy of leaves , flowers , fruits and seeds '' , and was illustrated with eighty-two plates , while appended to it were seven papers mostly of a chemical character .
the `` anatomy '' is especially notable for its descriptions of plant structure .
he described nearly all the key differences of morphology of stem and root , showed that the flowers of the asteraceae are built of multiple units , and correctly hypothesized that stamens are male organs .
`` anatomy of plants '' also contains the first known microscopic description of pollen .
much of grew 's pioneering work with the microscope was contemporary with that of marcello malpighi and the two reportedly borrowed freely from one another .
grew 's work on pollen was more extensive than that of malpighi , leading to the discovery that although all pollen is roughly globular , size and shape is different between species , however , pollen grains within a species are all alike .
this discovery is central to the field of palynology .
among his other publications were `` seawater made fresh '' -lrb- 1684 -rrb- , the `` nature and use of the salt contained in epsom and such other waters '' -lrb- 1697 -rrb- , which was a rendering of his `` tractatus de salis '' -lrb- 1693 -rrb- , and `` cosmologia sacra '' -lrb- 1701 -rrb- .
linnaeus named a genus of trees `` grewia '' in his honour .
at pembroke there is a stunning stained-glass representation of a page of his work in the college 's library .
grew is also considered to be one of the pioneers of dactyloscopy .
he was the first person to study and describe ridges , furrows , and pores on hand and foot surfaces .
in 1684 , he published accurate drawings of finger ridge patterns .
