Species Plantarum

{{lang|la|Species Plantarum}}{{#tag:ref|Its full title is {{lang|la|Species plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas}}.|group=Note}} was published on 1 May 1753 by Laurentius Salvius in Stockholm, in two volumes.{{cite web |url=https://www.abdn.ac.uk/special-collections/carolus-linnus-species-plantarum-458.php |title=Carolus Linnæus, Species Plantarum, Stockholm 1762–3 |year=2007 |work=Collection Highlight Summer 2007 |publisher=University of Aberdeen |access-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430182725/https://www.abdn.ac.uk/special-collections/carolus-linnus-species-plantarum-458.php |archive-date=30 April 2018}}{{cite book|last=Winston|first=Judith|title=Describing Species: Practical Taxonomic Procedure for Biologists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RirhjdrD1K0C&pg=PA35|access-date=2018-04-30|date=2012-04-20|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231506656|page=35 |df=dmy-all}}{{refn|1=The book was actually published in two volumes, the first being on 24 May and the second on 16 August. However, for practical purposes, the dates of issue for volumes was arbitrarily set on 1 May, see Stearn, W.T. (1957), The preparation of the Species Plantarum and the introduction of binomial nomenclature, in: Species Plantarum, A Facsimile of the first edition, London, Ray Society: 72 and ICN (Melbourne Code){{cite book |author1=McNeill, J. |author2=Barrie, F.R. |author3=Buck, W.R. |author4=Demoulin, V. |author5=Greuter, W. |author6=Hawksworth, D.L. |author7=Herendeen, P.S. |author8=Knapp, S. |author9=Marhold, K. |author10=Prado, J. |author11=Prud'homme Van Reine, W.F. |author12=Smith, G.F. |author13=Wiersema, J.H. |author14=Turland, N.J. |year=2012 |volume=Regnum Vegetabile 154 |title=International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code) adopted by the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress Melbourne, Australia, July 2011 |publisher=A.R.G. Gantner Verlag KG |isbn=978-3-87429-425-6 |url=http://www.iapt-taxon.org/nomen/main.php?page=title }} Art. 13.4 Note 1: "The two volumes of Linnaeus' Species plantarum, ed. 1 (1753), which appeared in May and August, 1753, respectively, are treated as having been published simultaneously on 1 May 1753."|group=Note}} A second edition was published in 1762–1763, and a third edition in 1764, although this "scarcely differed" from the second.{{cite book |author=Clive A. Stace |author-link=Clive A. Stace |year=1991 |title=Plant Taxonomy and Biosystematics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-42785-2 |edition=2nd |chapter=The development of plant taxonomy |pages=17–64 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfQnuwh3bw8C&pg=PA24}} Further editions were published after Linnaeus' death in 1778, under the direction of Karl Ludwig Willdenow, the director of the Berlin Botanical Garden; the fifth edition was titled "fourth edition" and was published by Willdenow in four volumes, 1798 (1), 1800 (2), 1801 (3¹), 1803 (3²), 1804 (3³), 1805 (4¹), 1806 (4²), rather than the dates printed on the volumes themselves.{{cite book |date=1935 |first=John |last=Briquet |title=International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature Adopted by the International Botanical Congresses of Vienna, 1905, and Brussels, 1910: Revised by the International Botanical Congress of Cambridge, 1930 |page=12 |url=http://www.botanicus.org/page/663619}}

File:Keskmise teelehe õisik Plantago media.jpg.]]

{{lang|la|Species Plantarum}} was the first botanical work to consistently apply the binomial nomenclature system of naming to any large group of organisms (Linnaeus' tenth edition of {{lang|la|Systema Naturae}} would apply the same technique to animals for the first time in 1758). Prior to this work, a plant species would be known by a long polynomial, such as {{lang|la|Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatis pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti}} (meaning "plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindrical spike and a terete scape") or {{lang|la|Nepeta floribus interrupte spicatis pedunculatis}} (meaning "Nepeta with flowers in a stalked, interrupted spike"). In {{lang|la|Species Plantarum}}, these cumbersome names were replaced with two-part names, consisting of a single-word genus name, and a single-word specific epithet or "trivial name"; the two examples above became Plantago media and Nepeta cataria, respectively.{{cite book |author=Roger Spencer, Rob Cross & Peter Lumley |year=2007 |title=Plant Names: a Guide to Botanical Nomenclature |edition=3rd |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |isbn=9780643099456 |chapter=Latin names, the binomial system and plant classification |pages=14–15 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqTt-Oewk-8C&pg=PA14}} The use of binomial names had originally been developed as a kind of shorthand in a student project about the plants eaten by cattle.{{cite book |author=Britannica Educational Publishing |year=2009 |title=The 100 Most Influential Scientists of All Time |publisher=Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=9781615300402 |chapter=Carolus Linnaeus |pages=93–97 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aeu0s8TsbOoC&pg=PA96}}

After the specific epithet, Linnaeus gave a short description of each species, and a synonymy. The descriptions were careful and terse, consisting of few words in small genera; in Glycyrrhiza, for instance, the three species (Glycyrrhiza echinata, Glycyrrhiza glabra and "Glycyrrhiza hirsuta",{{#tag:ref|Now considered a synonym of G. glabra.{{cite web |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/linnaean-typification/database/detail.dsml?ID=406900 |title=Glycyrrhiza hirsuta Linnaeus |work=The Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project |publisher=Natural History Museum |access-date=28 October 2013}}|group=Note}} respectively) were described as "{{lang|la|leguminibus echinatis}}", "{{lang|la|leguminibus glabris}}" and "{{lang|la|leguminibus hirsutis}}".{{cite book |author=Duane Isely |year=2002 |title=One Hundred and One Botanists |publisher=Purdue University Press |isbn=9781557532831 |chapter=Carl Linnaeus |pages=86–93 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=an6r8m0JfV8C&pg=PA89}}{{rp|89}}

Because it is the first work in which binomial nomenclature was consistently applied, {{lang|la|Species Plantarum}} was chosen as the "starting point" for the nomenclature of most plants (the nomenclature of some non-vascular plants and all fungi uses later starting points).{{cite book |author=Katherine E. Cullen |year=2006 |title=Biology: The People Behind the Science |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-7221-7 |chapter=Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778): binomial nomenclature system |pages=28–43 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCUklchzUSkC&pg=PA38}}

{{lang|la|Species Plantarum}} contained descriptions of the thousands of plant species known to Linnaeus at the time. In the first edition, there were 5,940 names, from Acalypha australis to Zygophyllum spinosum.{{cite web |url=http://fmhibd.library.cmu.edu/HIBD-DB/Species/home.php |title=Index to Binomials Cited in the First Edition of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum |author=Robert W. Kiger |publisher=Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation |access-date=2018-07-12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712163756/http://fmhibd.library.cmu.edu/HIBD-DB/Species/home.php |archive-date=2018-07-12}} In his introduction, Linnaeus estimated that there were fewer than 10,000 plant species in existence;{{cite journal |author=H. G. Bongard |author-link=Gustav Heinrich von Bongard |year=1835 |title=Historical sketch of the progress of botany in Russia, from the time of Peter the Great to the present day; and on the part which the Academy has borne in the advancement of this science |journal=Companion to the Botanical Magazine |volume=1 |pages=177–186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OU4CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA177}} there are now thought to be around 400,000 species of flowering plants alone.{{cite web |url=http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/running-repairs/biodiversity-conservation/flowering-plants/index.htm |title=How many flowering plants are there in the world? |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |access-date=28 October 2013}}

The species were arranged in around a thousand genera, which were grouped into 24 classes, according to Linnaeus' sexual system of classification.{{cite book |author=Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh |year=2011 |title=The Handy Science Answer Book |publisher=Visible Ink Press |isbn=9781578593637 |chapter=Plant world |pages=403–450 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1skS4rEueUC&pg=PA405}} There are no descriptions of the genera in {{lang|la|Species Plantarum}};{{rp|89}} these are supplied in the companion volume {{lang|la|Genera Plantarum}} ({{lit|the genera of plants}}), the fifth edition of which was printed at a similar time to the first edition of {{lang|la|Species Plantarum}}.{{refn|1=The fifth edition of Genera Plantarum was published in 1754, and contains a supplement to Species Plantarum, first published the year before.{{Cite web |url=https://linnean-online.org/120008/ |title=Genera Plantarum Ed. 5 |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=The Linnean Society of London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110235102/https://linnean-online.org/120008/#?s=0&cv=0 |archive-date=2023-11-10 |url-status=live}}|group=Note}} Linnaeus acknowledged his "sexual system" was an artificial system, rather than one which accurately reflects shared ancestry, but the system's simplicity made it easier for non-specialists to rapidly find the correct class, being based on simple counts of floral parts such as stigmas and stamens.

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== Bibliography ==

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• {{cite book |last=Linnaeus |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Linnaeus|title=Species Plantarum: exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas|url=http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/669#/summary|year=1753 |publisher=Impensis Laurentii Salvii|location=Stockholm|edition=1st}}
• Species Plantarum, [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358106#page/1/mode/1up vol. 1], [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13830#page/1/mode/1up vol. 2] at Biodiversity Heritage Library facsimile
• Species Plantarum, [http://www.botanicus.org/title/b12069590 vol. 1], [http://www.botanicus.org/item/31753000802832 vol. 2] at Botanicus
• {{cite book |last=Linnaeus |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Linnaeus|title=Species Plantarum: exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/11179#/summary|year=1763 |publisher=Impensis Laurentii Salvii|location=Stockholm|edition=2nd}}
• Species Plantarum at Project Gutenberg [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20771/20771-h/20771-h.htm I–III] [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27049 IV–V] [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30104 VI–X] [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31010 XI–XIII] text
• [http://www.linnaeuslink.org/search/results?query=title%3A%22Species+plantarum%22 Linnaeus Link Union Catalogue]

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