EN
Cell walls are at the ba sis of a struc tural, four-dimensional frame work of plant form and growth time. Re cent rapid prog ress of cell wall re search has led to the sit u a tion where the old, long-lastingjux ta po si tion: "liv ing" protoplast — "dead" cell wall, had to be dropped. Various at tempts of re-interpretation cast, how ever, some doubts over the very na ture of plant cell and the sta tus of the walls within such a cell. Fol low ing a com par i son of exocellular ma tri ces of plants and an i mals, their po si tion in re la tion to cells and or gan isms is ana lysed. A mul ti tude of per spec tives of the bi o log i cal or gani sa tion of liv ing be ings is pre sented with par tic u lar at ten tion paid to the cel lu lar and organismal the o ries. Ba sic ten ets and re sult ing cor ol lar ies of both the o ries are compared, and evolutionary and developmental implications are considered. Based on these data, "The Plant Body" - an organismal con cept of plants and plant cells is described.