/kloc-in the middle of the 0/7th century, an Englishman, R. Hooke, observed the cell wall of plant cells with a primitive microscope and put forward the concept of "cell". Later, contemporary Italian anatomist M Marcello Malpighi and British botanist N Gru made extensive observations on plant structure, and described the plant tissue system in detail in their research papers, thus laying the foundation for plant anatomy. In addition, the work of A.van Leeuwenhoek in the Netherlands, especially the first description of slotted catheter and its wall structure, also contributed to the establishment of plant anatomy. Gru was the first to realize that plant tissue can be divided into vertical system and horizontal system. He divided plants into parenchyma and sclerenchyma according to the viewpoint of Aufra Stuss in ancient Greece. At that time, he also noticed that the xylem in the root was arranged radially, and the vascular tissue in the root was solid, but it was cylindrical in the stem.

/kloc-in the 0/8th century, the Frenchman H.L. du armel Dumonceau put forward the term cambium, believing that cambium is a reproductive layer with an adhesive layer in the cortex. German C.F. Wolff put forward the theory of cell and tissue differentiation (meristem) at the beginning of 19 century, which promoted the further understanding of plant tissue. /kloc-in the middle of the 9th century, after the cell theory was put forward, it greatly promoted the study of plant anatomy, among which the Germans C.W. von Naegeli and H.von Moore made the greatest contribution, and their exposition on the formation and composition of cell walls has been used to this day. H.von Moore also affirmed the essence and formation mode of the catheter, and described the structure of epidermis, the properties of cuticle membrane, lenticels and cork, and the formation process of bark. He was also the first person to describe the complex structure of vascular bundles in the stems of monocotyledons and dicotyledons and their relationship with leaves. In addition, German E.A. Strasbourg combined morphology, cytology and anatomy to conduct a comprehensive study of plants, especially in the morphology and transportation system of gymnosperms. He proposed that there are two distinct systems in plants ── cortex assimilation system and stele transportation system. During this period, the research on plant anatomy was very active, such as putting forward various classification systems of plant tissues; There are many studies on cell division, meristem differentiation and vascular bundle structure. At the same time, the activity of vascular cambium, the occurrence and structure of secondary tissue, especially xylem and periderm, are also described correctly.

1877, H.A. Debary published the book Comparative Anatomy of Flowering Plants and Pteridophytes, which has a certain influence on the study of modern plant comparative anatomy, but the summary of plant structure in this book is not very comprehensive. It was not until P van Thiam in France and his students put forward Stella's theory that they had a comprehensive and unified understanding of plants.

Before the mid-20th century, plant anatomy was basically observed by various optical microscopes. Since the 1950s, transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscope have been widely used, and artificial in vitro culture and various physical and biochemical techniques have been adopted, which has enabled us to have a deeper understanding of various tissue structures and functions of plants and further expanded the research fields of plant anatomy, such as the study of transmission cells and plasmodesmata.

After two or three centuries of research, plant anatomy gradually differentiated into some branches under the mutual infiltration of other related disciplines, such as plant comparative anatomy, plant developmental anatomy, plant physiological anatomy, plant pathological anatomy, plant ecological anatomy, and wood anatomy (secondary xylem anatomy).