Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Linnæan System

LINNÆAN SYSTEM, the sexual system of botany introduced by Linnæus, which, though unequaled for the aid it affords in finding the name of a flower, yet labors under the fatal defect that it is purely artificial. Previous to his time, Jung, rector of the gymnasium at Hamburg, who died in 1657, had introduced the Latin botanical nomenclature. Tournefort, who died in 1708, had been the first to classify plants into strictly defined genera. It remained for Linnæus to arrange them and define the several genera and species scientifically. He divided the vegetable kingdom into 24 classes.