The first edition of "Systema Naturse" was published 

 in 1735 and the last (12th) in 1768. Zoologists accept as 

 the starting point for determining the generic and specific 

 names of animals the tenth edition of 1758, while botanists 

 have taken the 1753 edition of the "Species Plantarum", 

 of which the first edition was published in 1737, as their 

 starting point in nomenclature. 



Before Linnseus, the lion was described as the "cat 

 with a tuft at the end of the tail," and the tiger as the "yel- 

 low cat variegated with long black stripes. ' ' Such a method 

 of description was both cumbersome and unsystematic, 

 especially when the number of species became numerous. 



Linnseus gave each species a double name, e.g., Felis 

 leo and Felis tigris, the second name being the specific 

 title, and the first the genus, a group of more or less similar 

 species. In addition, genera were grouped into Orders, 

 and Orders into Classes. 



With the adoption of the binomial system "certainty 

 and precision were introduced into the art of description." 



Batsch in 1780 introduced the term Family between 

 Genus and Order, and Haeckel in 1886 the term Phylum 

 for a grouping of similar classes. 



The successive steps are known as Divisions, Classes, 

 Orders, Families, Genera, Species, Varieties which may be 

 arranged as follows: 



Variety. Race, Breed, or Strain. 



^Species Species- 



— Genus Genus — - 



io\ — Family Family 



^•^^ — Order 



'^^X —Class Class— 



\^ Division or Phylum 



Thus in time through the efforts of many expert sys- 

 tematists all the known plants and animals have been 

 classified. For example, the Spy apple belongs to the 

 Division Spermaphytes, (seed-bearing plants), to the Class 

 Dicotyledons (with two-seed leaves), to the Order Resales, 

 to the Family Rosacex, to the Genus Pyrus, to the Species 

 Mali, and finally to the Variety Spy. 



Similarly the domestic cat belongs to the Phylum 

 Chordata (back-boned animals), to the Class Mammalia 

 (mammals), to the Order Carnivora (flesh-eaters), to the 

 Family Felidae (the cat kind), to the Genus Felis, to the 

 Species domesticus. 



