Botanical Classification

Abstract

The various systems of plant classification proposed over the past 2,200 years may be distinguished according to the level of knowledge of the period, its current philosophical concepts, and its available scientific technology and how it was applied to classification. When this is done, the history of deliberate plant classification, if we use the term loosely, which dates from approximately 300 B.C. and continues to the present, divides into three major periods each with a distinct taxonomic system based on a distinct philosophical concept.