As botanists gradually came to know more and more new plants after each great voyage of discovery, the need grew for a system in which all these plants could be put neatly into various groups. When we think of how different they are from one another, we can see just how difficult it must have been to devise a way of classifying them.

The first scientist to carry out this great task was Carolus Linnaeus (1707-78), a Swedish naturalist. Linnaeus grouped plants according to their flowers and number and type of stamens and pistils on these flowers.

Today, Linnaeus’s classification has been replaced by newer and more accurate systems, but the achievement of Linnaeus remains great because he gave each plant two Latin names. The first name indicated the genus, or family, of the plant, and the second family, of the plant, and the second name gave the species, or particular member of the family.

Linnaeus’s system of naming plants is still used throughout the world today and at the major international botany congresses that are held every four years.