title: Julius Sachs (1832-1897) and the Unity of Life.
abstract: In 1865, the German botanist Julius Sachs published a seminal monograph entitled Experimental-Physiologie der Pflanzen (Experimental Physiology of Plants) and hence became the founder of a new scientific discipline that originated 150 y ago. Here, we outline the significance of the achievements of Sachs. In addition, we document, with reference to his Vorlesungen über Pflanzen-Physiologie (Lectures on the Physiology of Plants, 1882), that Sachs was one of the first experimentalists who proposed the functional unity of all organisms alive today (humans, animals, plants and other "vegetable" organisms, such as algae, cyanophyceae, fungi, myxomycetes, and bacteria).
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biology; University of Kassel ; Kassel , Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kutschera
authors.affiliation: b IZMB; University of Bonn ; Bonn , Germany.
authors.forename: František
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baluška
mesh_terms: D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D019369:Life
keywords: Julius Sachs; experimental plant physiology; plant science