The Development of Biological Systematics. 1994. XXII,615 p.gr8vo.Hardcover.

The author suggests a reevaluation of the history of biologicalsystematics since 1789, for the first time linking the systematic theoryand practice of Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu to his belief that the livingworld was a gapless continuum of form. Shows how Jussieu's approach waswidely accepted and persisted throughout the nineteenth century, despitethe growing realization that there were in fact more or less discretegroups in nature. Jussieu's systematic theory and practice are relatedto his general views of the living world. For example, Jussieu'sgroupings of plants - genera, families, and classes - representarbitrarily circumscribed portions of the continuum of life, withintermediates a necessary part of the whole; they are not discretegroupings of organisms.