It is emphasized that in the present state of our knowledge it is almost impossible to trace any group phylogenies. Even if we are able to determine them it will be very difficult to incorporate them in our classificatory schemes. It is therefore concluded that the main task of the systematist should be "to make a general classification which shall express as far as possible in rational order all that is known concerning plants and animals. This ideal which, even if never attained, is one which may still make the systematist proud in the magnitude of his task. It is an ideal greater than the phylogenetic ideal which is included in it and one which in the process of attempted attainment must make taxonomy what it should be, the focal point of biology".
A scientific study of classification of plants started with Linnaeus when in 1753 he published his monumental 'Species Plantarum' that made him the father of systematic botany. Linnaeus' system of classification was an artificial one, based as it was on tome arbitrarily selected characters.' He himself regarded it as "one of convenience until the tíme when a. Natural System could take-its place". Subsequently, however, classification began to be based on general resemblances and differences and the species came to be regarded as a concept rather than a fixed entity. Such a classification came to be known as a 'natural', 'logical' or more recently 'general' classification.
User
Font Size
Information