Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 62. (Budapest 1970)
Fekete, G. ; Szujkó-Lacza, J.: A survey of the plant life-form systems and the respective research approaches, II.
histogenesis, etc. of a given or related plant species (excellent information on the several approaches can be found in the volumes of "Fortschritte der Botanik"). Since the Wuchsform of plants concerns the coenologist with respect to the structure and dynamics of vegetation, it is those of the divergent approaches, differing both in methods and viewpoint, which stand nearest to us which discuss the external morphology of plants, the types of grouping of shootsystems, and the vegetative means of dispersal. In the followings, we propose to treat only some works of the German school beginning with H. MEUSEL'S investigations and based ón TROLL'S morphological school. The studies expounded below connect, almost to the same extent, with the ecologico-coenological life-form investigations and the ontomorphogenetic approach. MEUSEL (1935) gives a critical survey, from his own standpoint, of the physiognomical Wuchsform and ecological life-form investigations. Since the separation of the hereditary and adaptive morphological characteristics is, also in his view, hardly possible, he rejects the ecological interpretation of the life-form concept, indeed, even the concept itself. Instead of the life-form concept and term, he considers the Wuchsform concept the correct one, as a direct continuation of the classic physiognomico-morphological approach. He states: "Unter W T uchsform möchte ich weiter nichts verstanden wissen, als eine genaue Analyse der vegetativen Gestalt einer bestimmten Pflanze, der Lagebeziehung der einzelnen Organe zur Gesamtorganisation und zum umgebenden Medium. Zu Wuchstypen können die Wuchsformen zusammengestellt werden, die in bestimmten Merkmalen einheitlichen Bauplan erkennen lassen." MEUSEL'S critical standpoint refers not only to the life-form concept but also to the application of the Wuchsform. Instead of the physiognomico-ecological description, he considers of primary importance the investigation of the structure, the closedness, the stratification, the mosaic state, the rhythm etc., of the coenoses. Through these studies, the Wuchsforms and the Wuchsform spectra gain the greatest importance in the characterization of the vegetational units. The prevailing Wuchsform is a significant feature of the sociological structure of the given coenosis (MEUSEL, 1935). MEUSEL himself never connected, not even in later times, the Wuchsform studies of the taxa with the investigation of the structure of coenoses. In his more recent works (1952, 1964), MEUSEL substitutes the word Medium by Standort, similarly to a modification—in contrast with his work of 1935 —of his standpoint by contending that the structure of the organism ( = Wuchsform) is closely connected with habitat conditions. MEUSEL'S school aimed at the knowledge of the Wuchsform of the diverse taxa. MÖRCHEN (1965) studied the Rubiaceae ontomorphogenetically and distinguished some Wuchsformentypes ; MÜHLBERG (1967) describes the several Wuchstypes of Poaceae, based on the length of the internodes of the basal parts, and the distance and direction of growth as related to each other of the vegetative shoots forming the shoot-groups. Their types are: lockere Horst, dichte Horst, Übergänge zwischen Horst un Kriechtriebgräser, Kriechtriebgräser, Ausläufergräser, Annuelle Arten. MÜHLBERG'S Wuchstypes called attention to the community-structure forming properties of certain grass species of a characteristic growth pattern. In his elaboration, he submits interesting examples of shoot-groups evincing different dynamisms (cf. ZOZULIN, 1961). According to GLUCH (1967), the Wuchsform of a plant expresses the phyloge-
