Finishing Up on Taxonomy

Linnaeus' work wasn't immediately accepted by all partially because of its sexual nature and even erotic language in description. For example, early in life he wrote about how

"The flowers' leaves..serve as bridal beds which the Creator has so gloriously arranged, adorned with such noble bed curtains, and perfumed with so many soft scents that the briedgroom with his bride might there celebrate their nuptials with so much the greater solemnity..."

Hm..solmnity. Right. Or, another quotation, describing a flower with nine stamens and one pistil:

"Nine men in the same bride's chamber, with one woman."

Despite some controversy over the sexual language, Linnaeus system achieved quick international renown. By 1789 de Jussieu's had published his work that would eventually lead to the abandonment of the Linnaean sexual system, but the sexual system was still the accepted model in 1791, when William Withering's work An Arrangement of British Plants was published. This essay will consider that 1791 work.

A 1791 "Arrangement of British Plants"

Withering's classification through Class XV, Tetradynamia, agrees with the Linnaean system as presented in the previous essay. In presenting Class XV, Withering first defines the class: "there are 6 Stamens; 4 of them long, and 2 short," p. 288. The flowers of this class also have, uniformly, four petals. There are two orders in this class, distinguished by the "figure of the seed-vessel, which, in the 1st Order [Siliculosa] is a broad and short pouch; that is, a roundish flat seed-vessel, furnished with a Style, which is frequently as long as the seed-vessel itself. In the 2d Order [Siliquosa], the seed-vessel is a long Pod; that is, a very long seed-vessel, without any remarkable style."

I am already getting excited just knowing the Linnaean terminology, because however much it has become obsolete, it still reverberates in some publications and probably, at one time, meant a lot to lots of people. You don't really understand what things are named the way they are today unless you know why they used to be called certain things. Just to "finish" our presentation of Tetradynamia, both Orders of Siliculosa and Siliqousa have 11 genera. Then, Withering goes through the genera one at a time, beginning with the first under Siliculosa, Myagrum, and proceeds to describe the Calyx ("Cal."), the "Bloss." (Blossom), the "Stam.," the "Pist.," the "S. Vess" (Seed-Vessel) and the "Seeds." The descriptions are in English, and it might repay effort to compare this work not only to Aiton's work on the Kew Gardens of 1790 but also to subsequent and even present-day works on plant description. You wonder where all this precise-sounding language came from. No doubt it has its origins in the early development of horticultural terminology.

Class XVI, also in agreement with Linnaeus, describe the Monadelphia. Class XVII in both is the Diadelphia. Class XVIII, the Polyadelphia, only has one genus. Class XIX, the Syngenesia, is the same in both. Class XX is called the Cryptogamia in Withering, but there are still four other classes in the Linnaean system (Gynandria, Monoecia, Dioecia, Polygamia). I didn't go closely through Withering on the question, but I think he included the other four Linnaean classes under some of his other 19 classes.

The Cryptogamia

Withering begins:

"It is well known, that the attention of Linnaeus was much less engaged by the Class Cryptogamia, than by the other classes which are formed of plants with more obvious fructifications. It was his glory (sound like a supporter of Linnaeus?) to have established a system upon the organs of generation, (stamens and pistils,) of all others the most essential parts of a plant, and this system he has wrought up to such a state of perfection, that little, compared to what he himself has done, remains for his successors to do; except the additions it may receive from more extended researches in countries imperfectly, or not at all explored before," p. 347.

Since these "secret marriage" ones didn't fall into a sexual system, they were much less interesting to Linnaeus. He divided the Class into four "natural Orders": the Filices, the Musci, the Algae and the Fungi. Linnaeus made contributions to the first, but didn't explore the others. No matter; English and French scholars had done so in the time since Linnaeus wrote (about 40 years previously). But even though the author wants to give the impression of rather full knowledge of all things through Linnaeus and subsequent researchers, he confesses that the "Cryptogamia Class may be considered as containing a number of vegetables whose flowers and fructifications are but little or very imperfectly known, and whose stamens and pistils are too minute to admit of that mode of investigation which prevails through the preceding classes..," p. 349. Indeed, Withering now divides this class into six orders: Miscellaneae, Filices, Musci, Hepaticae (liverworts), Algae, Fungi.

Conclusions

We learn several things from this brief consideration of the contribution of Linnaeus.

1. His initial work was very small (11 pages), but it contained his outline of the "system" he would spend the rest of his life filling out.
2. The "sexual system" was a unique contribution of Linneaus and was meant to try to lessen the taxonomical chaos which existed at his time because of the growing number of plants known as well as inconsistent systems of classifying them.
3. Because "sex" was on Linnaeus mind, those plants not really having evident sexual characteristics were relegated to the "hidden" or "crypto" category.
4. He didn't really study these Cryptogamia in any detail. Withering notes that at one time Linnaeus seemed quite interested in the Fungi, but "the difficulty in preserving them in a state fit for comparing together, as well as the impracticability of transporting his books along with himself in various journals, seem to have checked his pursuits," p. 347.
5. There was a sense of optimism at the end of the 18th century that things were just about "settled" in the classification battles. In fact, things were just getting started.
6. It is of great value to me today (I hope to others, too), to learn how Linnaeus 'divided' and 'explained' the world. Often the Latin phrases he gave to describe something were very apt; and they even speak more strongly than the English to the thing being described. Many of his phrases or Latin categories have dropped out of circulation. But perhaps in our day or future days there will be renewed attention to the sexual issue in classification. After all, who is to determine in what a "natural" classification consists?

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