THE LINNAEAN SYSTEM RECONSIDERED

Three hundred years ago biological taxonomy was a chaotic discipline marked by miscommunication and misunderstanding. Biologists disagreed on the categories of classification, how to assign taxa to those categories, and even how to name taxa. Fortunately for biology, Linnaeus saw it as his divinely inspired mission to bring order to taxonomy. The system he introduced offered clear and simple rules for constructing classifications. It also contained rules of nomenclature that greatly enhanced the ability of biologists to communicate. Linnaeus's system of classification was widely accepted by the end of the eighteenth century. That acceptance brought order to a previously disorganized discipline. Furthermore, it laid the foundation for “the unprecedented flowering of taxonomic research” of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Mayr 1982, 173).

Linnaeus himself seemed assured of his place in the history of biology. Consider the frontispiece of his Hortus Cliffortianus (1737) (Figure I.1). Linnaeus's youthful face is seen on the body of Apollo. In one hand he holds a light, in the other he pushes back the clouds of ignorance from crowned Mother Nature. With his foot Linnaeus tramples the dragon of falsehood. In the foreground, plants are brought for identification and two cherubs admire Linnaeus's centigrade thermometer. An exuberant illustration, and an immodest one – it was commissioned and approved by Linnaeus. The metaphors of the illustration are not completely unfounded; Linnaeus's work did usher in a golden era of biological classification.