CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 4! 



CHAPTER VII. 

 CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 



The education of a naturalist now consists chiefly in learning how to compare. 



AGASSIZ. 



1 08. Nomenclature. The attempts in later years to 

 bring the system of plant nomenclature to a stable basis has 

 resulted in a number of annoying changes in the names of 

 species, and as the present edition contributes something to the 

 matter of change, it may justly be expected to give some reasons 

 for these changes. It is well known that before the time of Lin- 

 naeus, the method of naming plants and animals was a subject 

 of much embarrassment to science, and the lack of a definite 

 system gave rise to much inconvenience and endless confusion. 

 Linnaeus adopted a simple method of naming living organisms, 

 and to him belongs the merit of first extensively and systemat- 

 ically introducing the binomial system of nomenclature which 

 still remains universally in use. Many suppose that this was 

 his own invention, but binomial Latin names for plants were 

 used a hundred years before Linnaeus was born. Cornut, for 

 example, in a rare book published in 1635 * illustrates two of 

 our common ferns under the names " Filix baccifera " and 

 " Adiantum Americanum " probably the first illustrations 

 ever published of American species. Genera existed prior to 

 Linnaeus, and he was not always either wise or just in his selec- 

 tion or use of names for those he recognized. For example, he 

 changed the application of some of the names of that acute 

 botanist, Tournefort (1656-1708), who in 1700 published one of 

 the first accounts of genera.t a much more scientific treatise 

 than anything Linnaeus ever produced. Linnaeus also arbitrarily 

 changed names which his predecessors had used. Mitchell, in 



* Canadensium plantarum historia. 

 t Institutiones rei herbaria. 



