GREW, NEHEMIAH, a celebrated botanist, was born at Coventry, about the year 1628, and was the son of Dr Obadiah Grew, vicar of St Michaels. At the restoration of Charles II. being a non-conformist, he went abroad, and prosecuted his studies at a foreign university, where he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Upon his return to England he settled at Coventry, and, in the year 1664, his attention was first directed to the anatomy of plants ; and he was encouraged to proceed in this branch of natural history by his brother-in-law Dr Henry Samson, who point ed out to him a passage in Glisson's work De Renate, in which this subject is represented as an unexplored, but promising line of study. In the year 1670, Dr Samson, who had seen the first book of Grew's Anatomy of Plants, put it into the hands of Oldenburg, who gave it to Dr Wilkins, bishop of Chester, by whom the manuscript was read to the Royal Society, under the title of a Philosophi cal History of Plants. This work was highly approved of, and was printed by that distinguished body in 1671, under the title of the Anatomy of Vegetables begun, with a of Vegetation founded thereon. In con sequence of the reputation which this work acquired for Its author, Grew was invited to settle in London, where he arrived in 1671 ; and, upon the recommendation of Dr Wilkins, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and admitted on the 30th November 1671. At the sug gestion of the same learned divine, Grew was appointed curator to the Royal Society for the anatomy of plants, which led him to draw up the 2d, 3d, and 4th Parts of his work, and the various lectures on the same subject, which form a part of his Anatomy of Plants. All these papers were composed between the years 1670 and 1676, and were read at various meetings of the Royal Society. They were afterwards collected in 1682, with 83 plates, and published in a folio volume, under the title of the Anatomy of Plants, a work full of the most important facts in vege table physiology.
In the year 1673, Dr Grew published in the Transac tions, a paper, entitled Observations on Snow, in which he supposes, that the snowy particles are formed by the drops of rain containing spirituous particles, and meeting. in their descent with others of a saline, partly nitrous, but chiefly urinous or acido-salinous nature. In the year 1677, he was appointed secretary to the Royal Society, in which capacity he published the Phil. Trans. from January 1678 to February 1679. In the year 1680, he was made an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians, and attained to considerable practice in the medical profession.
Dr Grew drew up a catalogue of the natural and arti ficial rarities belonging to the Royal Society, and preserv ed at Gresham College, which was published in 1681 in folio, with the title of Museum Reg-alis Societatis, contain ing 22 plates. It was accompanied with another work, entitled the Comparative Anatomy of -Stomachs and Guts begun, being several lectures read before the Royal So ciety in 1676. The description of the Museum, though by no means free from mistakes, is a work of merit, and is remarkable for an ingenious scheme or disposition of shells.
The other papers which he printed in the Transactions, were The Description and Use of the Pores in the Skin of the Hands and Feet. Phil. Trans. 1684.
Some Observations on a diseased Spleen, Id. 1691. Description of the American Tomineius, or Humming Bird, Id. 1693.
On the Food of the Humming Bird, Id. 1693.
A Demonstration of the Xumber of Acres in England or South Britain, and the use which may be made of it, Id. 171 I .
One of the last works of Dr Grew, was his Cosmographia Sacra, or a Discourse of the Universe, as it is the Creature and Kingdom of God. The principal object of this work, was to demonstrate the truth and excellence of the sacred writings. The works of Dr Grew were translated into French and Latin. He died after a short illness on the 25th of March 1711, about the 83d year of his age.