Page:History of botany (Sachs; Garnsey).djvu/265

germination, and many on the structure of different woods. But all bears the stamp of only occasional study of plants; he was led to his observations by questions of the nature-philosophy then in vogue, and especially by such as were connected with the theory of evolution, not unfrequently by mere curiosity and pleasure in things obscure and inaccessible to ordinary people, but he did not gain from them a general idea of the structure of plants. In the course of these observations he did unquestionable service in perfecting simple magnifying glasses; he made a large number with his own hands, and these possessed magnifying powers evidently not at the command either of Malpighi or Grew. By aid of such glasses he discovered the vessels of secondary wood which are not spirally thickened but beset with pits, the true character of which however he did not investigate. He was the first moreover who perceived the crystals in vegetable tissue, namely in the rhizome of Iris florentina and in species of Smilax, and this could only be done with strong magnifying powers. In other matters he repeats the histological views of Malpighi and Grew, and on the whole his numerous communications seem painfully fragmentary and unscientific in presence of Malpighi's elegance and perspicuity, and Grew's systematic thoroughness. His figures too, which were not drawn by himself, are with some exceptions inferior to those of his great contemporaries.