Functional comparative histology. 2. Communication: organismic taxonomy (plant and animal taxonomy)

The historic development of the taxonomy of the animals and plants has been briefly reviewed. The new taxonomy of the six-kingdom approach offers an improved recognition of the taxonomy of organisms with true or with pseudotissues than that of older taxonomy. Table 5 contains a brief description of the Histonia animalia and Histonia plantae and of several prototypes of incomplete tissue development, as well as of the fungi with plectenchymata. Special emphasis is placed upon the macroscopic and histologic characteristics of each taxonomic group. It is also the purpose of the tables to offer the reader of this and especially of future communications a brief, succinct review of the taxa under consideration. The communication on taxa outlined briefly the development of taxonomy of organisms since the times of ancient Greece. To this review, survey of modern taxonomy, with important histologic and other characteristics of the taxa of the Histonia, is added. The new six-kingdom approach reflects more accurately the cellular and histologic conditions in the phyla of the Histonia. In the higher fungi, the plectenchymata are seen; in the highest rhodophyta and phaeophyta, the cauloid, rhizoid and other plant pseudotissues develop. At a somewhat higher phylogenetic stage, there belong the pseudotissues of bryophyta. In comparison to cormophyta, the same holds true for the rather primitive tissue development of bryophyta. They are not directly comparable to the tissues of the highest porifera exhibiting the lowest animal tissues. Metaphyta from the plant kingdom without cell differentiation such as the highest brown algae, partially growing with apical meristems, which reach a length of 120 m, hence belong to the largest plants. By way of contrast, the multicellular animals lower than the Porifera and belonging to the phyla Placozoa and Mesozoa are only a few millimeters in size. Finally, the focus (centre) of the Histonia is represented by those species with true tissues, the Histonia animalia or Eumetazoans and the Histonia plantae, vascular plants, or Tracheophyta. The borderlines are fluid and opinions differ. It would also be possible to consider the pseudotissues of the Rhodophyta, Phaeophyta, and Bryophyta as morphologically lower counterparts of the true tissues of the vascular plants (Tracheophyta) and to consider only the plectenchymata, developing through coalescence and interweaving as non-true or pseudotissues.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)