XVI International Botanical Congess

Begin with specimens and books, add a DNA sequencer and software for generating algorithms, and you have the tools of today's plant systematist. But who collected the specimen? Where and why? How does molecular phyogeny using data from the specimen compare to a classical one: What name do we give the specimen? The documents we save will influence our ability to answer these questions and understand why we answer to history and bibliography, but the marriage is stormy. Will we divorce Linnaeus? Knowledge of explorers and exploration in the Tropics lags even as they are key to understanding phylogenies and ecosystems. Botanist are not notably introspective, and we have much to learn about the conceptual development of sytematics. The Internet provides a surfeit of information. Our challenge is to sue it to create knowledge.