So, naturalists observe, a flea on ill to bite ’em;And so proceed ad infinitum.
All tion needed to be filed, ordered, and compared was known.
te for a em of classification. Fortunately tood ready to provide it.
er co tocraticvonLinné), but inized form Carolus Linnaeus. in sout ambitious Lute, and t ed faticed s, nearly apprenticed o a cobbler. Appalled at t of spending alifetime banging tacks into leated, and er inction. udied medicine inSill inies, o produce catalogues of t and animal species, using asystem of his own devising, and gradually his fame grew.
Rarely able ness. mucime penning long and flattering portraits of ter botanist or zoologist,” and t em of classification estac in tly ed t one sion Princeps Botanicorum, “Prince of Botanists.” It o question s. t to find terthem.
Linnaeus’s otriking quality times, one migion icularly struck by ty betain bivalvesand to ts of one species of clam s by ture of tive organs andendoingly antions of floo “promiscuous intercourse,” “barren concubines,”
and “te in one oft-quoted passage:
Love comes even to ts. Males and females . . . ials . . .
she flowers’
leaves serve as a bridal bed, scents t t te tials er solemnity. ime for to embrace o her.
s Clitoria. Not surprisingly, many people t range.
But em of classification ible. Before Linnaeus, plants ive. toserratis. Linnaeus lopped it back to Pa, ill uses. t enciesof naming. A botanist could not be sure ifRosa sylvestris alba cum rubore, folio glabro t otris inodora seu canina. Linnaeus solved t by calling it simply Rosa canina. to make toall required muc required an instinct—a genius, in fact—for spotting t qualities of a species.
tem is so ablis ive, butbefore Linnaeus, systems of classification en becategorized by ed, terrestrial or aquatic, large or small,even y to man. Anatomical considerations barely came into it. Linnaeusmade it o rectify t oits ptributes. taxonomy—ion—has n