Carl Linnaeus 1707-1778

Swedish Botanist

Linnaeus is most famous for his method of classifying plants, a method which revolutionized botany. Prior to Linnaeus, plants had been classified rather haphazardly according to such characteristics as whether they were fleshy or thorny, how their names were spelled, or how important they were to man. Linnaeus classification based on plant's reproduction systems brought order to the botanical chaos that preceded his work.

Linnaeus faced a fierce storm of public criticism for his suggestion that plants reproduced in the same way as animals. For this, he was denounced as a degenerate and a corrupter of morals. At the time, the story of the birds, the bees, and the flowers definitely did not include the flowers. Linnaeus got into further trouble when he anticipated Darwin by classifying humans in the same category with apes.