SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATI

ON

ERA’S OF PLANT CLASSIFICATION

There are 3 main era’s of plant classification :-

1. Ancient Era : This era starts with Theophratus (370-285 B.C.) and ends with Cesalpino.

Classification based on gross morphology.

2. Modern Era : This era starts with Carolus Linnaeus and ends with Hutchinson.

The main taxonomist are Bentham & Hooker and Engler & Prantl.

This era is based on artificial classification.

3. Current Era : This era begins with Cronquist.

This era based on phylogenetic classification.

THEOPHRASTUS (370-285 B.C.)

Greek naturalist

A pupil of Plato and Aristotle, who

became head of the Lyceum in

Athens

His original was Tyrtamus, but

later Aristotle named him as

‘Theophrastus’

Father of Botany

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONSHe is credited with having authored more than 200 works.

He described about 500 kinds of plants, classified into four major groups : the

trees, shrubs, subshrubs and herbs.

He recognized the differences between flowering plants and non – flowering

plants, superior ovary and inferior ovary, free and fused petals and also fruit types.

Two of his botanical works have survived intact, available in English are :-

1. Enquiry into plants (1916)

2. The Causes of plants (1927)

GASPARD BAUHIN (1560-

1624) Also known as Caspar Bauhin –

Legislateur en botanique

Swiss botanist

Born at Basel in 1580

Studied medicine at Padua,

Montpellier and in Germany.

Appointed to Greek professorship,

to the chair of anatomy and botany.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS

He formed a herbarium of 4000 specimens.

He published Phytopinax (1596), Prodromus theatri botanici (1602) and

lastly, Pinax theatri botanici (1623), containing 6000 species of plants giving

synonyms and introducing the binomial nomenclature for several species.

He sought to clarify in a single publication the confusion regarding

multiplicity of names for all species known at that time.

Although he did not describe genera, and did not recognize difference

between species and genera.

JEAN BAUHIN (1541-1613)

Also named as Johann Bauhin

French and Swiss physician

Born at Basel on 12

December,1541

Studied botany in Tübingen

Elected professor of Rhetoric.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS

He compiled a description of 5000 plants with more than 3500 figures, a work

published under the name Historia plantarum universalis in 1650-51 in 3

volumes, several years after his death.

He nurtured several botanic gardens and also collected plants during his

travels.

In 1591, he published a list of plants named after saints called De Plantis a

Divis Sanctisve Nomen Habentibus.

Linnaeus named the genus Bauhinia (family Caesalpiniaceae) for brothers.

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