which his views arrived at clearness and precision; it is sufficient
in this history to show what was peculiar and original in his
general conception of the problems of phytotomy. This
appears most plainly in the 'Phytotomie' of 1830; and we
may base our historical survey on that work because its views
are in the main those of the first volume of the 'Neues System' which appeared seven years later, and still more because a
detailed examination of the later publication would involve us in a lengthy discussion on Meyen's scientific relation to von Mohl.
It is less important in this place to give an estimate of Meyen's
character as a man of science than to show, how in the year
1830, when Mohl was beginning to apply himself to phytotomy
but as yet exercised no important influence on opinion, views
on the structure of plants were formed by one who gave
himself up to its study with decided ability and great zeal ; in
this way we shall gain a standard by which to judge of the
advance made chiefly by von Mohl and in part by Mirbel during
the succeeding ten years. In judging of Meyen's book, we
must not forget that it was written when he was only twenty-five or twenty-six years old, and that it is under any view of it a remarkable performance for so young a man.
Meyen adopted three fundamental forms of elementary organs in plants; cells, spiral tubes, and sap-vessels ; systems, he says, are formed by union of similar elementary organs; hence there is a cell-system, a spiral tube-system, and a system of sap-vessels (vascular system). We see at once by this classification how closely he follows the ideas formed before Moldenhawer. The establishment of these three systems is a retrograde step, since Moldenhawer had already clearly distinguished between vascular bundles and cell-tissue. Meyen then discusses each system at length and shows how they are grouped together. He lays great stress, as he did also at a later period, on the difference in the characteristic forms of cell-tissue, for which he introduced the names merenchyma, parenchyma, prosenchyma and pleurenchyma. These he calls
