578 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
MARINE FLORA AND FAUNA. - 
Since the old mooted question about “the limits of the animal and 
vegetable kingdom” comes anew into the foreground in the planktoni¢e 
studies, a few words must first be devoted to its consideration. In the 
plankton, those organisms (for the most part microscopic) which stand 
on the boundary line and which may be regarded as examples of a 
neutral “ Protista realm,” play a conspicuous part—the unicellular 
diatoms and murracytes, dictyochea and paimellaria, thalamophora and 
radiolaria, dinoflagellata and cystoflagellata. Since it is still asserted 
that for. replies to this boundary question we need new researches, 
‘““more exact observations and experiments,” I must here express the 
opposing belief, that the desired answer is not to be obtained by this 
empirical and inductive method, but only by the philosophic and deduct- 
ive method of more logical definite conception (logischer Begriff-Bestim- 
mung). Hither we must use as a definite distinction between the two 
great organic realms the physiological antithesis of assimilation, and 
consider as “plants” all “reducing organisms” (with chemical-synthetic 
functions) and as “animals” all “ oxidizing organisms” (with chemical- 
analytical functions) or we may lay greater weight on the morphological 
differences of bodily structure and place the unicellular “‘Protista” (with- 
out tissues) over against the multicellular Histona (with tissues).* 
For the problem before us, and with more particular reference to the 
important questions of the fundamental food supply (Urnahrung) and 
the cycle of matter in the sea (Stoffwechsel des Meeres), it is here more 
suitable to employ the first method. I regard the diatoms, murracytes, 
and dinoflagellates as Protophytes, the thalamophores, radiolarians, and 
cystoflagellates as Protozoa. 
For a term to designate the totality of the marine flora and fauna, 
the expression halobios seems to be suitable, in opposition to limnobios 
(the organic world of fresh water) and to geobios (as the totality of the 
land-dwelling or terrestrial plant and animal world). ‘The term bios 
was applied by the father of natural history, Aristotle, “to the whole 
world of living” as opposed to the lifeless forms, the abion. The term 
biology should be used only in this comprehensive sense, for the 
whole organic natural science, as opposed to the inorganic, the abiology. 
In this sense, zodlogy and botany on the one side, and morphology 
and physiology on the other, are only subordinate parts of biology, 
the general science of organisms. But if (as is frequently done to-day 
even in Germany) the term biology is used in a much narrower sense, 
instead of ecology, this narrowing leads to misunderstandings. Imention 
* Protista and Histona may both again be divided into two groups, on the ground 
of the different assimilation, into an animal and a vegetable group, the Protista into 
Protophyta and Protozoa, the Histona into Metaphyta and Metazoa. Compare my 
‘‘Natural History of Creation” (Natiirliche Schipfungsgeschichte), 8th edition, 1889, pp. 
420 and 453, 
