Abstract
TAXONOMY, from the Greek origins of the word, is the law of order. The theory and practice of classification is, and has been, the first function of the taxonomist. In the earlier history of botanical taxonomy the theory was based primarily on the dogmas of the creation and fixity of species, and this tended to the codification of artificial laws for classifying the taxonomic units, with the practical aim of easy and certain identification. With the acceptance of evolutionary ideas, the theory has largely changed, and with this change other applications have appeared and sometimes confuse results. The dogma of the constancy of species had at least one advantage for the taxonomist—his work was simply the classification of theoretically clear-cut units. Nowadays, the dynamic point of view is in vogue, and phylogenetic considerations are sometimes allowed to dominate the practical issue of classification. How far supposed phylogeny can be used advantageously in classifying the larger plant groupings is not a subject-matter of this paper; but there is a danger that classification for utilitarian purposes may be subordinated to classification for the sake of theoretical considerations.
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Turrill, W. Contacts between Plant Classification and Experimental Botany. Nature 137, 563–566 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137563a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137563a0
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