Species Grewia velutinissima

For Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712), British botanist and physiologist, physician, microscopist, known as ‘the father of plant physiology’. He graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1661 and read for a medical degree from Leiden University in 1671. From 1672 he practised as a physician. Grew published a number of works, including Idea of a Phytological History (1673), and his major work, Anatomy of Plants (1682). Much of Grew’s pioneering physiological work was done with the microscope, as was the research by his Italian contemporary Marcello Malpighi, who sent botanical and zoological works to the Royal Society in 1675 and 1679, so there was a likely exchange of information. Grew was a Fellow of the Royal Society and at one time its secretary.