Nomenclature of Plants
Historical: The present day binomial system of nomenclature had a long evolutionary development. In 1753 Linnaeus published his great work ' Species Plantarum' where he employed the binomial system to name the plants in true sense. Augustin de Candolle's Theorie elementaire de la botsnique published in 1813 provided the first significant work since the publications of Linnaeus on nomenclature and morphology of the plants. In this work, for the first time, a complete and detailed set of rules on plant nomenclature was given. In 1821, Stendel's Nomenclature botanicus was published which comprised a list of the Latin names of all flowering plants known by then. The second edition of the work appeared in 1840. Nomenclature was used universally by the botanists, and formed the basis of the Index Kewensis.
Common names of the plants: The plants have been provided with names by the different people of the different regions of the world in their own languages. Three common or local names of the plants have their own weaknesses. There are three main defects in common names-i) They may be quite indefinite, e.g Pansy has been provided with fifty English names ii) They are restricted to the people of one language or even one section of a country. iii) They are not regulated by any constituted authority. These common names give great trouble to a plant collector in a foreign country. There he feels the local names to be more difficult than the botanical names.
Botanical or binomial names of the plant: At the present time each kind of plant is given a generic name followed by a specific name or epithet. The generic name is a noun, and the specific epithet is an adjective indicating which of the several members of the genus has been considered. The genus name is always capitalized. The modern tendency is not to capitalize the specific name regardless of its derivation. Binomials are frequently descriptive of the plants and are usually derived from Greek or Latin, since these languages are internationally known byscholars. For example, Coffea arabica Linn., stands for coffee; Ficus elastica Roxb., for India rubber, Helianthus annus Linn., for sunflower, etc.
Binomial when written should always be underlined and when printed they must be in italicized type. The name or the abbreviated name of the scientist who first described the species follows the binomial-such as Coffea arabica Linn.; Mangifera indica Linn.; Rosa alba Linn.; Santalum album Linn. etc.Linn. stands for the name of the great taxonomist Linnaeus, here each binomial is followed by the abbreviated name of the great taxonomist Linnaeus, here each binomial is followed by the abbreviated name of the scientist who first described the species. Some binomials are followed by two names, the first of which is within the brackets, thus Albizia lebbeck(Linn.) Benth. The name within bracket is that of the person who is responsible for the currently recognized binomial. Accordingly, Linnaeus described the plant for the first time and Bentham corrected the name later on. The reason for such author citations aids the taxonomist in finding the original and subsequent descriptions of a plant when necessary, and to avoid confusion when different workers use the same binomial accidentally to name different species.