Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), also known as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus (after 1761 Carolus a Linné).

Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University, and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and '60s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, and published several volumes. At the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.

In botany, the author abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species' names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation "Linn." is found.

Systema Naturae

The first edition of Systema Naturae was printed in the Netherlands in 1735. It was a twelve-page work. By the time it reached its 10th edition in 1758, it classified 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants. In it, the unwieldy names mostly used at the time, such as "Physalis annua ramosissima, ramis angulosis glabris, foliis dentato-serratis", were supplemented with concise and now familiar "binomials", composed of the generic name, followed by a specific epithet – in the case given, Physalis angulata. These binomials could serve as a label to refer to the species. Higher taxa were constructed and arranged in a simple and orderly manner. Although the system, now known as binomial nomenclature, was partially developed by the Bauhin brothers (see Gaspard Bauhin and Johann Bauhin) almost 200 years earlier, Linnaeus was the first to use it consistently throughout the work, including in monospecific genera, and may be said to have popularised it within the scientific community.

After the decline in Linnaeus' health in the early 1770s, publication of editions of Systema Naturae went in two different directions. Another Swedish scientist, Johan Andreas Murray issued the Regnum Vegetabile section separately in 1774 as the Systema Vegetabilium, rather confusingly labelled the 13th edition.Template:Sfn Meanwhile a 13th edition of the entire Systema appeared in parts between 1788-1793. It was as the Systema Vegetabilium, that Linnaeus' work became widely known in England following translation from the Latin by the Lichfield Botanical Society, as A System of Vegetables (1783–1785).Template:Sfn

Linnaean taxonomy

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Table of the Animal Kingdom (Template:Lang) from the 1st edition of Template:Lang (1735)

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The establishment of universally accepted conventions for the naming of organisms was Linnaeus' main contribution to taxonomy—his work marks the starting point of consistent use of binomial nomenclature. During the 18th century expansion of natural history knowledge, Linnaeus also developed what became known as the Linnaean taxonomy; the system of scientific classification now widely used in the biological sciences.

The Linnaean system classified nature within a nested hierarchy, starting with three kingdoms. Kingdoms were divided into classes and they, in turn, into orders, and thence into genera (singular: genus), which were divided into Species (singular: species). Below the rank of species he sometimes recognized taxa of a lower (unnamed) rank; these have since acquired standardised names such as variety in botany and subspecies in zoology. Modern taxonomy includes a rank of family between order and genus and a rank of phylum between kingdom and class that were not present in Linnaeus' original system.

Linnaeus' groupings were based upon shared physical characteristics, and not simply upon differences. Of his higher groupings, only those for animals are still in use, and the groupings themselves have been significantly changed since their conception, as have the principles behind them. Nevertheless, Linnaeus is credited with establishing the idea of a hierarchical structure of classification which is based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships. While the underlying details concerning what are considered to be scientifically valid "observable characteristics" have changed with expanding knowledge (for example, DNA sequencing, unavailable in Linnaeus' time, has proven to be a tool of considerable utility for classifying living organisms and establishing their evolutionary relationships), the fundamental principle remains sound.

See also

• Linnaean taxonomy (Linnaean system)

References

Bibliography

• Anderson, Margaret J. (1997). . Enslow Publishers.
• Blunt, Wilfrid (2001). Linnaeus: the compleat naturalist. Frances Lincoln.
• Blunt, Wilfrid (2004). Linnaeus: the compleat naturalist. Frances Lincoln.
• Jacobus Bontius (1658). De Indiæ Utriusque re naturali et medica libri quatuordecim. Quorum contenta pagina sequens exhibet pp. 1–226. Elzevier.
• Braziel, Jana Evans (2007). pp. 35–70. Mercer University Press.
• Gunnar Broberg (1975). . Almquist and Wiksell.
• Broberg, Gunnar (2008). "The Dragonslayer". Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek 29 (1–2): 29–43. http://dpc.uba.uva.nl/tvs/vol29/nr01/art03. 
• Gunnar Broberg (2006). . Swedish Institute.
• . Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company (1973).
• Sex, Botany and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks. Icon Books (2003). Retrieved on 22 February 2015.
• Frängsmyr, Tore (1983). Linnaeus, the man and his work. University of California Press.
• Frodin, D. G. (2001). Guide to Standard Floras of the World: an Annotated, Geographically Arranged Systematic Bibliography of the Principal Floras, Enumerations, Checklists, and Chorological Atlases of Different Areas pp. 24–51. Cambridge University Press.
• Flower Hunters. Oxford University Press (2008).
• Keevak, Michael (2011). . Princeton University Press.
• Lisbet Rausing (1999). . Harvard University Press.
• Loring Brace, C. (2005). . Oxford University Press.
• Marks, Jonathan (2010). Human Evolutionary Biology pp. 265–276. Cambridge University Press.
• Östholm, Hanna (2007). Mary J. Morris and Leonie Berwick. ed. "The Linnaean Legacy: Three Centuries after his Birth" (PDF). The Linnean (Newsletter and Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London) Special Issue No. 8: 35–44. http://www.linnean.org/fileadmin/images/Linnean/Special_Issue_8_-_The_Linneaen_Legacy.pdf. 
• Quammen, David (June 2007). "The Name Giver". National Geographic. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/06/linnaeus-name-giver/david-quammen-text/1. Retrieved 3 April 2010. 
• . Oxford University Press (1993).
• Simpson, George Gaylord (1961). . Columbia University Press.
• Slotkin, J. S. (1965). pp. 175–243. Methuen Publishing.
• Sprague, T. A. (1953). "Linnaeus as a nomenclaturist". Taxon 2 (3): 40–46. Template:Hide in printTemplate:Only in print. Template:Hide in printTemplate:Only in print. 
• Clive A. Stace (1991). . Cambridge University Press.
• Frans Stafleu (1971). . International Association for Plant Taxonomy.
• Stearn, W. T. (1959). "The Background of Linnaeus' Contributions to the Nomenclature and Methods of Systematic Biology". Systematic Zoology 8 (1): 4–22. Template:Hide in printTemplate:Only in print. 
• Stöver, Dietrich Johann Heinrich (1794). The life of Sir Charles Linnæus. Library of Congress.
• Van den Hoek, C., D. G. Mann, and H. M. Jahns (2005). . Cambridge University Press.
• Veitch, H. J. (1897). "Nepenthes". Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 21 (2): 226–262. 
• Willoughby, Pamela (2007). . AltaMira Press.
• . JHU Press (2005).
• Windelspecht, Michael (2002). . Greenwood Publishing Group.

Works by Linnaeus

• Linnaeus, Carolus (1735). Systema naturae, sive regna tria naturae systematice proposita per classes, ordines, genera, & species pp. 1–12. Haak.
• . B. de Graaf (1964).
• Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis pp. [1–4], 1–824. Laurentius Salvius.
• Systema vegetabilium (13th edition of Systema Naturae) (2 vols.). Typis et impensis Jo. Christ. Dieterich (1774). Retrieved on 24 February 2015.
  • Systema vegetabilium (13th edition of Systema Naturae). Lichfield Botanical Society (1785). Retrieved on 24 February 2015.
• Linnaeus, Carolus (1771). Mantissa plantarum altera generum editionis VI et specierum editionis II pp. [1–7], 144–588. Laurentius Salvius.

Further reading

• C. L. Brightwell (1858). A Life of Linnaeus. J. Van Voorst.
• Lys de Bray (2001). pp. 62–71. Quantum Publishing Ltd.
• Edmund Otis Hovey (1908). The Bicentenary of the Birth of Carolus Linnaeus. New York Academy of Sciences.
• George, Sam (June 2005). "‘Not Strictly Proper For A Female Pen’: Eighteenth-Century Poetry and the Sexuality of Botany". Comparative Critical Studies 2 (2): 191–210. Template:Hide in printTemplate:Only in print. http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/ccs.2005.2.2.191. Retrieved 23 February 2015. 
• George, Sam (30 January 2014). "Carl Linnaeus, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward: Botanical Poetry and Female Education". Science & Education 23 (3): 673–694. Template:Hide in printTemplate:Only in print. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11191-014-9677-y. Retrieved 23 February 2015. 
• Sverker Sörlin & Otto Fagerstedt (2004). (Swedish). Natur och kultur/Fakta.
• J. L. P. M. Krol (1982). (Dutch).
• . The IK Foundation & Company (2007–2011).

External links

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Biographies

• Biography at the Department of Systematic Botany, University of Uppsala
• Biography at The Linnean Society of London
• Biography from the University of California Museum of Paleontology
• A four-minute biographical video from the London Natural History Museum on YouTube
• Biography from Taxonomic Literature, 2nd Edition. 1976–2009.

Resources

• Template:Gutenberg author
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• The Linnean Society of London
• The Linnaeus Apostles
• The Linnean Collections
• The Linnean Correspondence
• Linnaeus' Disciples and Apostles
• The Linnaean Dissertations
• Linnean Herbarium
• The Linnæus Tercentenary
• Works by Carl von Linné at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Digital edition: "Critica botanica" by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• Digital edition: "Classes plantarum seu systemata plantarum" by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• Oratio de telluris habitabilis incremento (1744) - full digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library