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Contributions of Famous Botanists to PlantSystematics

Theophrastus (372287 BC)

Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle, produced Historia Plantarum, the earliest

surviving treatise on plants, where he listed the names of over 500 plant species.

However he did not articulate a formal classification scheme; instead he relied on the

common groupings of folklore combined with growth form: tree shrub; undershrub; or

herb.

The most important of his books are two large botanical treatises, Enquiry into Plants

(Historia Plantarum), and On the Causes of Plants (De Causis Plantarums), whichconstitute the most important contribution to botanical science during antiquity and the

Middle Ages, the first systemization of the botanical world; on the strength of these

works some call him the "father ofbotany."

Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD)

Gaius Plinius Cecilius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman scholar,

encyclopedist, and nationalist who was born in Novum Comum in Gallia Cisalpine

(today Como, Italy). His most famous work, his one surviving book, Historia Naturalis

(Natural History), published in A.D. 77. Natural Historyconsists of thirty-seven books.The books 12-17 are for botany, books 18-19 are for agriculture, books 20-27 are

for materia medica from botanical sources.

A special interest attaches to his account of the manufacture ofpapyrus and the variousgrades of papyrus available to Romans. Different types of trees and the properties ofthe wood from them receive a vigorous treatment. He describes the olive tree in somedetail, praising its virtues as one might expect. Botany is well discussed by Pliny, usingTheophrastus as one of his sources.

Pedanius Dioscorides (40-90 AD)He was a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of De MateriaMedica, a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbalmedicine and related medicinalsubstances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years.

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The Materia medica of Dioscorides was an important early compendium of plant

descriptions (over five hundred); it was in use from its publication in the 1st century until

the 16th century.

Albertus Magnus (~12001280)

Albertus Magnus (Albert, Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne) produced a

classification system that recognized monocots and dicots, although he do not use

those terms.

Andrea Cesalpino (15191603)

Andrea Cesalpino (Andreas Caesalpinus) based his system on the structure of theorgans of fructification, using the Aristotelian technique of logical division, published inDe plantis libri XVI, 1583 with 1520 plants. His main groups are herbal and woody, but

he uses the flowers and fruits for lower classes. He also made the concept ofgenera.

He was one of the first botanists to make a herbarium. He made one for BishopAlfonso Tornabono in 1550-60. It contains 768 varieties of plants, and it still exists.

The family Caesalpinioideae is named in his honour.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708)

He introduced an even more sophisticated hierarchy of class, section, genus, andspecies, used an artificial system based on logical division which was widely used until

Linnaeus. His first major work was Elments de botanique, ou Mthode pourreconnatre les Plantes from 1694. Here, he describes fungi and puts lichen in adistinguish group, and his flower characters was innovative. Furthermore, he made aclear distinction between genus and species, and give descriptions of thegenera. He used this method to classify the 7,000 plant species into 700 genera, awork Linnaeus had great help of.

Pierre Magnol (1638-1715)

He grouped plants into 76 families in his publication Prodromus historiae generalis,in qua familiae pertabulas disponuturfrom 1689. He is the first to use the concept ofFamily, and he used a combination of morphological characters.

He is honored in the Magnolia genus and Division.

Caspar Bauhin (15601624)

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Caspar Bauhin (Gaspard) described over 6000 plants in Pinax theatri botanici, 1623,which were 12 books with 72 sections based on a wide range of commoncharacteristics. The classification system was not particularly innovative, usingtraditional groups such as "trees", "shrubs", and "herbs", and using other characteristicssuch utilization, for instance grouping spices into the Aromata. He did correctly group

grasses, legumes, and several others.His most important contribution is in the description of genera and species. Heintroduced many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus, and remain inuse.

For species, he carefully pruned the descriptions down to as few words as possible; inmany cases a single word sufficed as description, thus giving the appearance of a two-part name. However, the single-word description was still a description intended to bediagnostic, not an arbitrarily-chosen name. This might very well have been theinspiration for Linnaeus to event the binomial nomenclature.

Later came Theatrum Botanicum in 1658, but only one out of twelve volumes werepublished. Two more were written, but newer made it to the printer.

The Bauhinia is named after him and his brother; Johann Bauhin, another botanist.

Otto Brunfels (1488-1534)

He published his Herbarum vivae icones, 1530 and 1536 and ContrafaytKruterbuch, 1532-1537. They contain new and good descriptions of the Germanplants he found during his botanical studies, under their German vernacular names. Thespecial about his publications on botany is; he describes the plants he sees, instead of

using previous descriptions.

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Linnaeus, known as Father of taxonomy, created a sexual system of classification

(Marriages of Plants) that divided plants into 24 classes based in large part on the

number, union, and length of stamens. Secondary grouping with these classes (Order)

was based on the gynoecium mostly the number of styles. While the artificial approach

allowed quick sorting and identification, its application produced 'unnatural' groupings.

The next step along the path of systematizing flowering plants involved an effort, which

progressed through the 1700s and first half of the 19th century, to employ as manycharacters as needed to insure that natural patterns of variation were reflected by the

classification system.

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu(17481836)

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Antoine Laurent de Jussieu and his uncle Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1777), also used aclassification system that distinguishes relationships between plants by considering alarge number of characters, generally invented by Michel Adanson in 1757, andcombined it with Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature. InGenera Plantarum secundumordines naturalis disposita, 1789, they distinguished 15 classes and 100 families

(called Orders). Seventy six of his 100 families remain in botanical nomenclature today.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

In 1778, Lamarck published Flore franaise, a meticulously compiled catalog of Frenchflora. To identify each plant, Lamarck used a dichotomous key; that is, a systematiclist of key characteristics. By comparing the plant's characteristics to the listed traits ateach stage of identification, large groups of dissimilar plants could be quickly eliminatedand the plant's identity easily determined. The book and Lamarck's method soonattracted the attention of noted biologist Georges Buffon, who nurtured Lamarck'sinterest in botany and in 1781 secured him the position of botanist to King Louis XVI.

Lamarck continued to work at the Jardin du Roi until the French Revolution resulted inits dissolution.

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (17781841)

He published his Principes lmentaires de botaniqueasan introduction to the thirdedition of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's Flore franaise 1803-1815. In 1813, he published hisown Thorie lmentaire de la botanique with 135 families (still called Order). Hewanted the system to be natural, like Adanson's, in opposed to the artificial, LinnaeanSystem.

He classified plants into cellulares or non-vascular plants and vasculares orvascular plants.

In 1821 came the first two (and only) volumes ofRegni vegetabilis systema naturale.He tried to make it less extensive, but only managed to make seven out of ten volumesof Prodromus systemati naturalis regni vegetabilis sive enumeratio contractaordinum, generum specierumque plantarum huc usque cognitarum, juxtamethodi naturalis normas digesta, which were finished by his son: Alphonse LouisPierre Pyrame de Candolle (1806-1893) , and his grandson: Anne Casimir Pyrame deCandolle (1836-1918). It counts 161 families and 58000 species is treated.

The Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis was intended to be a descriptiveclassification of all known seed plants. Candolle's goal was not only to classify everyknown species, but also to include ecology, evolution, and the biogeography of each.Candolle was a pioneer in the field of biogeography, an idea Armen Takhtajan used in1966.

His work counts the less familiar groups, and remained the only systematic treatmentavailable for some plant groups for many years.

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Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle (1806-1893)

Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle is most famous for his Lois de lanomenclature botanique adoptes par le Congrs international de botanique tenu Paris en aot, 1867; the first Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

The ICBN sets the formal starting date of plant nomenclature at 1 May 1753, thepublication ofSpecies Plantarum by Linnaeus.

Michel Adanson (1727-1806)

He founded his classification of all organized beings on the consideration of eachindividual organ, and not only the flowers, like Linnaeus. As each organ gave birth tonew relations, so he established a corresponding number of arbitrary arrangements.Those beings possessing the greatest number of similar organs were referred to onegreat division, and the relationship was considered more remote in proportion to thedissimilarity of organs. This made a much more natural system, than Linnaeus.

In 1763, he published his Familles naturelles des plantes, where he uses the multi-characteristic system. The success of this work was hindered by its innovations in theuse of terms, which were ridiculed by the defenders of the popular sexual system ofLinnaeus. Never the less, his way of classification opened up for more precisegroupings, made by coming taxonomists. His systematic were inspired by Joseph Pittonde Tournefort's system from 1694. As a system, his work is brilliant, but his big mistakewas to refuse to use the new binomial nomenclature. Never the less; it open the way forthe establishment, by means principally of Antoine Laurent de Jussieu's GeneraPlantarum (1789), of the natural method of the classification of plants.

His work on the baobabs results in the Adansonia commemorating Adanson.

George Bentham (1800-1884) and Joseph Hooker (1817-1911)

The most important natural system of classification of seed plants was proposed by twoBritish botanists, George Bentham and Sir Joseph D. Hooker, in Genera Plantarum,recognized 97,205 species belonging to 7,569 genera of families of flowering plants.They gave an outstanding system of classification of phanerogams in their Genera

Plantarum which was published in three volumes between the years 1862 to 1883. It isa natural system of classification. However, it does not show the evolutionaryrelationship between different groups of plants, in the strict sense. Nevertheless, it is themost popular system of classification particularly for angiosperms. The popularity comesfrom the face that very clear key characters have been listed for each of the families.These key characters enable the students of taxonomy to easily identify and assign anyangiosperm plant to its family.

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Bentham and Hooker have grouped advanced, seed bearing plants into a major divisioncalled Phanerogamia. This division has been divided into three classes namely:Dicotyledonae, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledoneae.

Wilhelm Hofmeister (1824-1877)

Hofmeister is widely credited with discovery of alternation of generations as a

general principle in plant life. His proposal that alternation between haploid and diploid

phases constituted a unifying theory of plant evolution that was published in 1851 as

Vergleichende Untersuchungen (Comparative Investigations), showed the

homologies between the higher seed-bearing plants (phanerogams) and the

mosses and ferns (cryptogams) and demonstrated the true position of the

gymnosperms between the angiospermsand the cryptogams.

August Wilhelm Eichler (1839-1887)

August Wilhelm Eichler (Augustus Guilielmus) separated Phanerogamae inAngiosperms and Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms again in Monocotyledonae andDicotyledonae. It was published in Bltendiagramme, I-II: 1875-1878. In 1883, hedivided the plant kingdom into non-floral plants (Cryptogamae) and floral plants(Phanerogamae). His system is significant in the perspective it is the first one in whichthe concept of Evolution. It is in line with Adolphe-Thodore Brongniart's 1843 work.

Stephan Ladislaus EndlicherThe majority and the most valuable of his works are on botany. Foremost among themare his Genera Plantarum (1831-41), in which he lays down a new system ofclassification, Grundzge einer neuen Theorie der Pflanzenerzeugung(Foundationsof a new theory of plant breeding; 1838), and Die Medicinalpflanzen dersterreichischen Pharmakope (Medicinal plants in the Austrian pharmacopoeia;1842). The principal of his other botanical works are: Ceratotheca (1822), FloraPosoniensis (1830), Diesingia (1832), Atacta Botanica (1833), IconographiaGenerum Plantarum (1838), Enchiridium Botanicum (1841) and SynopsisConiferarum Sancti Galli(1847).

Endlicher established the botanical journal Annalen des Wiener Museums derNaturgeschichte (1835). He began the work Flora Brasiliensis with Martius. He alsopublished early works on the flora ofAustralia, including the plants collected by Carl vonHugel and Ferdinand Bauer.

He wrote several works in conjunction with other scholars, and many of his minorwritings are scattered among the periodicals of his time, especially in the Annalen des

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Wiener Museums. Endlicher described many new plantgenera, perhaps most notablythe genus Sequoia.

The genus Endlicheria of the family Lauraceae was named in his honor.

Richard Wettstein (1863-1931)

Richard Wettstein (Ritter von Westersheim) published his system in Handbuch dersystematischen Botanik from 1901-1935. It counts 48 ordos (orders) with 315families, including Gymnospermae. His new idea is: Monocots evolved from Ranales.He also used the phylogenetic system.

Charles Edwin Bessey (1845-1915)

The first American taxonomist made his Bessey system, with focus on theevolutionary divergence of primitive forms. The systems based on various 28 guidingrules, or dicta (dicots are primitive; monocots arose from them), to determinelevel of being, simple or advanced, of a group of plants. It is considered by many as thesystem most likely to form the basis of a modern, comprehensive taxonomy of the plantkingdom. It was published in The phylogenetic taxonomy of flowering plants , 1915.Here, he considered Spermatophyta as having had polyphyletic origin, being composedby three different phyla, of which he treated only Anthophyta. He was full in line withRichard Wettstein ideas.

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (18441930) and Karl Anton EugenPrantl (1849-1893)

Adolf Engler and Karl Prantl of Germany published a phylogenetic system in theirmonograph on Die Naturlichen Pflanzen Familien(The Natural Families of France).They believed that classification systems should reflect evolutionary history. Theydeveloped first phylogenetic system of plant classification (at Botanical Garden inBerlin) and that gave a slightly changed August Wilhelm Eichler system. Families andorders arranged based on the complexity of floral morphology. Characters like aperianth with one whorl, unisexual flowers and pollination by wind were consideredprimitive as compared to perianth with two whorls, bisexual flowers and pollination by

insects. They dealt with the primitive groups as well. It is in line with Adolphe-ThodoreBrongniart's 1843 work. The Plant Kingdom is divided into 14 major divisions. The first13 divisions cover algae, fungi, bryophytes and pteridophytes. The 14th division isnamed Embryophyta Siphonogama. It is divided into two subdivisions: Gymnospermae(Cycads and Conifers) and Angiospermae (flowering plants).

Arthur John Cronquist (1919-1991)

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He was a North American botanist and a specialist on Compositae. He is considered

one of the most influential botanists of the 20th century, largely due to his formulation of

the Cronquist system, which was an expansion and modification of Besseys work.

The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants . It

was developed by Arthur Cronquist in his texts An Integrated System of

Classification of Flowering Plants (1981) and The Evolution and Classification of

Flowering Plants (1968; 2nd edition, 1988). The 'Cronquist System' of Flowering Plant

(Magnoliophyta) classification groups flowering plants into two classes: Magnoliopsida

(dicotyledons) and Liliopsida (monocotyledons) with related Orders (groups of families)

placed in Subclasses.

John Hutchinson (1884-1972)

John Hutchinson's System was published in his two volumes: Monocotyledonae in

1926, and Dicotyledonae in 1934 (2nd edition 1959; 3rd edition, 1973). The families of

flowering plants, arranged according to a new system based on their probable

phylogeny. It counts 328 families. It was a radical revision of the angiosperm

classification system devised by Bentham & Hooker and by Engler & Prantl.

He was commemorated in the genus Hutchinsonia by Robyns.

Rolf Martin Theodor Dahlgren (1932-1987)

He made hisAngiosperm Classification in 1975, with 112 orders and 477 families.

Professor Rolf Dahlgren was during the 70s and until the mid-80s a leading figure inextensive studies of the diversity and evolution of the monocots. His monumental work(with T. Clifford and P. Yeo) The families of the Monocotyledones is the starting pointof virtually all modern monocot research and has been the impetus to extensivecollection of sequence data within the last decade. Bubble diagrams were developedby Professor Rolf Dahlgren in an effort to establish a new way to look at plantclassification rather than the system developed by Linnaeus which is so cumbersomebut is still the system used around the world. He worked close together with Robert F.Thorne.

Armen Leonovich Takhtajan (1910-2009)

Takhtajan worked at the Komarov Botanical Institute in Leningrad, where he developedhis 1940 classification scheme forflowering plants, which emphasized phylogeneticrelationships between plants. His system did not become known to botanists in theWest until after 1950, and in the late 1950s he began a correspondence andcollaboration with the prominent American botanist Arthur Cronquist, whose plant

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classification scheme was heavily influenced by his collaboration with Takhtajan andother botanists at Komarov.

The "Takhtajan system" of flowering plant classification treats flowering plants as adivision (phylum), Magnoliophyta, with two classes, Magnoliopsida (dicots) and

Liliopsida (monocots). These two classes are subdivided into subclasses, and thensuperorders, orders, and families. The Takhtajan system is similar to the Cronquistsystem, but with somewhat greater complexity at the higher levels. He favors smallerorders and families, to allow character and evolutionary relationships to be more easilygrasped. The Takhtajan classification system remains influential; it is used, for example,by the Montral Botanical Garden.

Takhtajan also developed a system offloristic regions.

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References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armen_Takhtajanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan_Endlicheren.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Hofmeister

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