1789 Genera Plantarum Secundum Odines Naturales antique leather book Modern Botainical nomenclatur

Genera plantarum. - Systema Naturae by celebrated Swedish naturalist and explorer, was the first scientist to propose principles for defining the genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them: binomial nomenclature. His system was so successful that it is still used today for naming new species of plants and animals. From its first publication "Genera plantarum" was a huge and immediate success, and is justly considered an integral part of this first stepping stone towards a universal standardised biological nomenclature. Linnaeus himself was proud to boast: "by describing all parts of the fructification with great accuracy and setting up characters on this basis, so that a genus which has not been described in the Linnaean manner is entirely imperfect". Linnaeus compiled his list of genera when he was only 29, while he was curator of the botanical collection of George Clifford (1635-1760), a rich Anglo-Dutch merchant banker who had established a large botanical garden on his estate at Hartekamp, near Haarlem. The first edition of "Systema naturae" had only twelve pages, and with each new edition new plant and animal species were added. The 13th edition was published in 1770 and more than 2000 pages. The work presented a revolutionary way to classify the three kingdoms in nature: the animal, the plant, and stones. Each kingdom was to subdivided into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties. Linnaeus's classification system has survived in biology, though additional ranks, such as families, have been added to accommodate growing numbers of species.