CHAPTER L 



TAXONOMY 



Linnaeus 



A cat named Tom 



How can the many plants and animals of the icorld be identified? 

 What is the purpose of identification? What is taxonomy? What 

 contributions made by scientists have helped to systematize the classi- 

 fication s of pi a nts and an im alsf 



It is said that Alexander the Great was a pupil of Aristotle, the 

 Father of Biology. Alexander held his teacher in the highest 

 esteem, and, during his campaign and conquests, kept a group of 

 couriers to carry unusual plant and animal forms back to his friend 

 and teacher. These specimens came in such large numbers that 

 Aristotle had to devise a means of caring for them in an orderly 

 manner. He used a system of classification that was largely based 

 on the habitat of the organisms. For his animals he had eight 

 groups, four of which were blood-containing, and knoAvn as mam- 

 mals, birds, egg-laying quadrupeds, and fishes ; while four were 

 bloodless, namely, squid-like animals, Crustacea, insects, and 

 animals with shells. 



The binomial system of Linnaeus. Various other scientists 

 changed this system, but Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish natu- 

 ralist, devised the system upon which the modern method of 

 classification is based. Before his time, in order to describe a 

 kind of grass and not confuse it with other forms more or less 



510 



