Happy Birthday, Theophrastus

Natural History, March, 2007 by Tom Hoeber, Richard Conniff

In his article, "Happy Birthday, Linnaeus" [12/06-1/07], Richard Conniff credits Linnaeus with being "the inventor of the system by which every living species gets its two-part scientific name." The actual origin of this binomial shorthand goes back more than 2,000 years, to Theophrastus, the original classifier of plants. When classical Greek knowledge was rediscovered in the fifteenth century, his convenient two-part naming system was revived. Thereafter a succession of botanists used it.

Tom Hoeber

Gold Hill, Oregon

RICHARD CONNIFF REPLIES: Although I said in my article that none of the methods advocated in the Linnaean system was completely original, editorial space prevented me from elaborating on the antecedents. So I am grateful to Tom Hoeber for correcting the unintended slight to Theophrastus.