Original URL: http://www.inform.umd.edu/PBIO/pb250/hist2.html

PBIO 250 Lecture Notes

James L. Reveal

Department of Plant Biology, University of Maryland


History of Systematic Botany

Systems of classification

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708)
Institutiones rei herbariae (1700)
"Father of the generic concept"
artificial systems of classification
numerical classification
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) - REQUIRED READING - see illustrations: far right; from the Linnean Society of London; left from Hunt Institute
Carl von Linné
"Father of taxonomy"
numerous publication, one of the largest collection of Linnaean publications is at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.
Systema naturae (1735)
Genera plantarum (1737)
Hortus cliffortianus (1738)
Johannes F. Gronovius (1686-1762)
John Clayton (1694-1773) - search the Clayton Herbarium at The Natural History Museum, London
Flora virginica (1739, 1743)
Pehr Kalm (1716-1779)
John and William Bartram - garden near Philadelphia
Species plantarum (1753) - starting point of modern botanical nomenclature - see this site for more information on Linnaean publications and his collection
  1. Linnaeus, C. 1735. Systema Naturae. Amsterdam.
  2. --. 1736. Methodus. Leiden.
  3. --. 1737. Critica Botanica. Leiden.
  4. --. 1737. Genera Plantarum. Leiden.
  5. --. 1738. Hortus Cliffortianus. Amsterdam.
  6. --. 1751. Philosophia Botanica. Stockholm.
  7. --. 1753. Species Plantarum. 2 vols. Stockholm.
  8. Stafleu, F. A. 1971. Linnaeus and the Linnaeans. Regnum Veg. 79: 1-386.
scientific names
binomial system of nomenclature
generic name
species epithet
scientific name
Rudbeckia hirta L.
Chrysanthemum Marilandicum, caule & folis hirsutis hieracii, flore magno, floribus petalis, radiato disco grandi protuberante
natural systems of classification
named for the younger Olof Rudbeck
Michel Adanson (1727-1806) - portrait
Families des plantes (1763)
53 families recognized
Durande, Jean F. (1732-1794)
Notions élémentaires de botanique (1782)
Jean B.A.P.M. de Lamarck (1744-1829) - botanist and zoologist
Flore françoise (1778)
artificial keys
Antoine de Jussieu (1688-1758) - portrait
Joseph de Jussieu (1704-1779)
Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1777)
Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) - portrait
Genera plantarum secundum ordines (1789)
100 "orders" or modern families
August Johann Georg Carl Batsch (1761-1802)
Dispositio generum plantarum jenensium (1786)
Analyses florum (1790)
Synopsis universalis analytica generum plantarum (1793)
Tabula affinitatum regni vegetabilis (1802)
Augustin Augier (fl. 1801)
Essai d'une nouvelle classification des végétaux (1801)
242 families treated
Ivan Ivanoic Martinov (fl. 1820-1826)
Tekhno-Botanico Slovar (1820)
validated 99 family names
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841) - portrait
Théorie élémentaire de la botanique (1813)
Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetablis, 17 vols. (1823-1873)
161 families and 58000 species treated
Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus de Candolle (1806-1893)
Friedrich Graf von Berchtold (1781-1876) & Jan Swatopluk Presl (1791-1849)
O prirozenosti Rostlin (1820)
180 families
John Lindley (1799-1865) - portrait
  1. Lindley, J. 1830. An introduction to the natural system of botany. London. [An American edition was published in 1831 with an appendix by John Torrey.
  2. --. 1833. Nixus plantarum. London.
  3. --. 1836. A natural system of botany. London.
  4. --. 1846. The vegetable kingdom. London.
278 families of flowering plants accepted in 3rd edition of The vegetable kingdom (1853)
Stephan F.L. Endlicher (1804-1849) - portrait
Genera plantarum (1836-1841, 1850)
Carl F. Meissner (1800-1874)
Plantarum vascularium genera (1837-1843)
George Bentham (1800-1884) - portrait and discussion
Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, England (founded in 1841)
Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) - portrait
William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) - portrait
David Douglas (1798-1834) - portrait
Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) - portrait and discussion
Flora-boreali Americana (1833-1840)
Genera plantarum (1862-1883)
200 families and 7569 genera

Charles Darwin (1809-1882; image © Swarthmore) - read about the person and his life
The Darwin-Wallace 1858 evolution paper (1858)
Origin of species (1859) - a summary of the findings
Galapagos Islands
fixity of species
evolution - a bit of useful reading, and then five major misconceptions about evolution
Joseph D. Hooker
On the classification of Plants, 1873.
Karl Prantl (1849-1893)
Lehrbuch der Botanik, 1874
August Wilheim Eichler (1839-1887)
Syllabus der Vorlesungen über Phanerogamenkunde, 3rd ed., 1883

Modern Systems of Classification

Adolf Engler (1844-1930) - portrait
Karl A.E. Prantl (1849-1893) - portrait
Berlin Botanical Garden (founded in 1879)
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (first edition, 1887-1915; second edition, 1942- )
Syllabus, 1892
288 vascular plant families
Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien (ed. 12, 1964)
Englerian school
unisexual flower the most primitive
Charles E. Bessey (1845-1915) - portrait
Nebraska University Studies, 1907, 1910 and 1914

  1. Bessey, C.E. 1907. A synopsis of plant phyla. Univ. Nebraska Stud. 7: 275-373.
  2. --. 1910. The phyla, classes, and orders of plants. Trans. Amer. Microscop. Soc. 29: 85-96.
  3. --. 1914. Revisions of some plant phyla. Univ. Nebraska Stud. 14: 37-109.
  4. --. 1915. The phylogenetic taxonomy of vascular plants. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 2: 109-164.
  5. Cuerrier, A., D. Barabé & L. Brouillet. 1992. Bessey and Engler: A numerical analysis of their classification of flowering plants. Taxon 41: 667-684.
  6. Overfield, R.A. 1993. Science with practice: Charles E. Bessey and the maturing of American botany. Ames, IA.
Besseyian school
magnolian flowers the most primitive
John Hutchinson (1884-1972) - right
Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
The families of flowering plants (1926, 1934)
Families of flowering plants (1973)
328 families
Genera of flowering plants (1964, 1967)
Arthur Cronquist (1919-1992)
New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx
An integrated system of classification of flowering plants (1981)
388 families
The evolution and classification of flowering plants, 2nd ed. (1988)
389 families
Armen Takhtajan (1910-   )
Komarov Botanical Institute, Leningrad
Systema magnoliophytorum (1987)
533 families
Diversity and classification of flowering plants (1997)
592 families
Rolf M.T. Dahlgren (1932-1987)
Botanical Museum, University of Copenhagen
477 families
The families of the monocotyledons (1985)
Robert F. Thorne (1920- )
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont
  1. Thorne, R. F. 1992. Classification and geography of the flowering plants. Bot. Rev. 58: 225-348.
  2. --. 1997. A revised classification of the angiosperms. An electronic publication
437 families in 1992, 454 families in 1997
Richard K. Brummitt (1937-   )
Vascular plant families and genera (1992)
445 families
James L. Reveal (1941-   )
Indices nominum supragenericorum vascularium plantarum (1995-onward)
Vascular plant family nomenclature (1996-onward)
Reveal system of classification
612 families; 46 fern & fern allies; 14 gymnosperms; 552 angiosperms
Ruurd D. Hoogland (1922-1994)
Tayna Wielgorskaya
Dictionary of generic names of seed plants (1995)
568 families
Gunn et al. (1992) estimated 81 genera of Pinophyta and 13479 genera of Magnoliophyta; Wielgorskaya lists 94 genera for the first division and 14068 for the second.
Wielgorskaya - 668 species of Pinophyta; 265711 of Magnoliophyta: total 266379
Kåre Bremer et al. recognize 40 orders and 462 families although many families not placed in any order
  1. Bremer, K., B. Bremer, & M. Thulin. 1998. Classification of flowering plants. An electronic publication.
  2. Bremer, K. et al. 1999. An ordinal classification for the families of flowering plants. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 85: 531-553. 1999

Other Sites of Interest:
History of biological sciences: From Encyclopaedia Britannica
More about Linnaeus
Brief history of floristics in North America
Taxonomic Botany and Floristics in North America north of Mexico: A review by James L. Reveal and James Pringle
Directory of botanists, plantsmen, landscapers, gardeners and writers of note
History of Biology by Janet Stein Carter
Rare botanical books with a history by Richard P. Wunderlin

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Last revised: 17 Nov 1997