12 



TAXONOMY OF THE HIGHER PLANTS 



Reed C. Rollins 



For man, the most significant idea having its origins in taxonomy is the 

 idea of evolution. As we contemplate a celebration of the centennial of Dar- 

 win's Origin of Species in 1959, we are moved to reflect on the far-reaching 

 ramifications of the idea of evolution outside of biology. There is scarcely 

 an area of learning that has not embraced it in one form or another. And 

 within biology, by the turn of the last century, organic evolution had become 

 a focal point of much research. Even today, various aspects of evolution are 

 very much in the central stream of research activity in biology. As with many, 

 perhaps most, great ideas, the emergence of the theory of evolution was 

 inevitable, made so by the gradual accumulation and organization of facts 

 regarding the living world. It is a significant and special characteristic of 

 taxonomy that this branch of biology is concerned with the accumulation and 

 organization of knowledge concerning plants and animals, whatever they may 

 be or wherever they may occur. 



It is not trite to say that taxonomy starts and ends the inquiry about a par- 

 ticular organism. The first biological question asked is: What is it? This was 

 also the pristine question of man. Once answered today, one possesses an open 

 sesame to the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of our civilization concern- 

 ing a particular species. Important as it is to be able to open the door, it is 

 of far greater significance for taxonomy that it also stands at the end of the 

 line to profit from any and all inquiries that may be directed toward a given 

 organism. The numerous modes of research represented by the various 

 branches of botany, ranging from physiology to palynology, produce a mass 

 of data about given plants that is not only significant for its own sake, but 

 often is very pertinent for the systematist. In other words, the field of tax- 

 onomy in a way epitomizes the work of all other branches of biology centered 

 on the organism itself and brings the varied factual information from them 

 to bear on the problems of interrelationship, classification, and evolution. 



192 



