Introduction

This chapter turns from the cell itself to how cells are organised into the larger internal architecture of a plant. That field of study is called Plant Anatomy (from the Greek ana, 'as under', and temnein, 'to cut'), and it is investigated by dissecting plant organs and examining thin sections under a microscope. A plant's cells are organised into tissues, and tissues in turn are organised into the organs of the plant, with different organs showing different internal structures. Every tissue in a plant body falls into one of two broad groups: meristematic tissues, which keep dividing, and permanent tissues, which have stopped dividing and taken on a fixed, specialised form.