. Adventures with animals and plants. Biology. PROBLEM 3. Living Things Are Na?ned and Classified. Fig. 127 i/.'f t'crsiiVi cat, the leopard, ajid the pmiia are placed in the same genus be- cause of their si7>iilarity. However, they differ from each other, too. For this reason each is placed in a different species, (national zoological park) in the details of classification are still be- ing- made as new facts are discovered. Just as it becomes necessary to make more and • more subdivisions in coin or stamp collections when you get more specimens, so with plants and animals the first large
. Adventures with animals and plants. Biology. PROBLEM 3. Living Things Are Na?ned and Classified. Fig. 127 i/.'f t'crsiiVi cat, the leopard, ajid the pmiia are placed in the same genus be- cause of their si7>iilarity. However, they differ from each other, too. For this reason each is placed in a different species, (national zoological park) in the details of classification are still be- ing- made as new facts are discovered. Just as it becomes necessary to make more and • more subdivisions in coin or stamp collections when you get more specimens, so with plants and animals the first large groups had to be subdi- vided further and further. Of course, this was not all done at one time nor by one man; many contributed. But a more complete scheme than had appeared be- fore was developed and established by Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778). Linnaeus did two important jobs: he established a system of classification and he estab- lished a new method of naming plants and animals. To find out something about Linnaeus, do Exercise 4. Naming in the early days. Centuries ago plants and animals were known only by common names. This is sensible enough for local everyday discussion but it does not work for a biologist, for sometimes the same animal or plant goes by different names in different parts of the country and sometimes the same name is used for different animals or plants. For example, in this country, to- day, the common name "gopher" is used for several kinds of ground squirrels in the west, means "tortoises" in the far south, and is applied to a snake in the southwest. To avoid this difficulty biologists formerly wrote a long description of an organism and used that for the name. The more they knew about an organism the longer the description; sometimes it was four or five lines long. This did not make matters simple. Linnaeus named many animals and plants. Linnaeus' scheme provides a short, simple name for every organism; this name may also partly
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