_Lace_; and bounding the several _Bladders_ of the _Pith_ and _Barque_, as the _Threds_ do the several _Holes_ of the _Lace_; and making up the _Insertions_ without _Bladders_, or with very small ones, as the same _Threds_ likewise do the _close_ Parts of the _Lace_, which they call the _Cloth-Work_. And lastly, both the _Lignous_ and _Aer-Vessels_, stand all _Perpendicular_, and so cross to the _Horizontal Fibres_ of all the said _Parenchymous Parts_; even as in a Piece of _Lace_ upon the _Cushion_, the _Pins_ do to the _Threds_. The _Pins_ being also conceived to be _Tubular_, and prolonged to any length; and the same _Lace-Work_ to be wrought many Thousands of times over and over again, to any thickness or hight, according to the hight of any _Plant_. And this is the true _Texture_ of a _Plant_." Grew thus visualised the inner structure of the plant as a textile fabric, and the analogy between vegetable substance and woven threads seems to have been constantly present in his mind. The same idea also occurs, for instance, in the dedication of his _magnum opus_, where he says, "one who walks about with the meanest _Stick_, holds a Piece of Nature's Handicraft, which far surpasses the most elaborate _Woof_ or _Needle-Work_ in the World." The notions at which Nehemiah Grew arrived on the subject of the vascular anatomy of plants were more advanced than his ideas on the ultimate nature of the tissues. There is no doubt that the comparison with animal anatomy, which was constantly in his mind, was on the whole helpful, though it led to some errors. The following paragraph, which occurs in the _Cosmologia Sacra_, seems to be an instance in which the analogy with the animal kingdom, helped him to take a broad view. "In the Woody Parts of Plants, which are their Bones; the Principles are so compounded, as to make them Flexible without Joynts, and also Elastick. That so their Roots may yield to Stones, and their Trunks to the Wind, or other force, with a power of Restitution. Whereas the Bones of Animals, being joynted, are made Inflexible."