Schleiden, Matthias Jakob

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Schleiden, Matthias Jakob (1804–81) German botanist, who became professor of botany at the University of Jena in 1839. A year earlier he had introduced the idea that plants consisted of cells; this theory was later extended to animals by Theodor Schwann (see cell theory). Schleiden recognized the existence and importance of the cell's nucleus, although he mistakenly believed that new cells were formed by budding from the surface of the nucleus.

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