In botany, the phrase ''ordo naturalis'', 'natural order', was once used for what today is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

. Its origins lie with

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

who used the phrase when he referred to natural groups of plants in his lesser-known work, particularly ''

Philosophia Botanica ''Philosophia Botanica'' ("Botanical Philosophy", ed. 1, Stockholm & Amsterdam, 1751.) was published by the Swedish naturalist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) who greatly influenced the development of botanical taxonomy and systematics ...

''. In his more famous works the '' Systema Naturae'' and the '' Species Plantarum'', plants were arranged according to his artificial "Sexual system", and Linnaeus used the word for an artificial unit. In those works, only genera and species (sometimes varieties) were "real"

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

. In nineteenth-century works such as the '' Prodromus'' of and the ''

Genera Plantarum ''Genera Plantarum'' is a publication of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). The first edition was issued in Leiden, 1737. The fifth edition served as a complementary volume to ''Species Plantarum'' (1753). Article 13 of the Internati ...

'' of Bentham & Hooker, the word did indicate taxa that are now given the rank of family. Contemporary French works used the word for these same taxa. In the first international ''Rules'' of botanical nomenclature of 1906 the word ''family'' () was assigned to this rank, while the term ''order'' () was reserved for a higher rank, for what in the nineteenth century had often been named a (plural ). The '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' provides for names published in the rank of in Art 18.2: normally, these are to be accepted as family names. Article 18.2 Some plant families retain the name they were given by pre-Linnaean authors, recognised by Linnaeus as "natural orders" (e.g. '' Palmae'' or '' Labiatae''). Such names are known as descriptive family names.

References

{{Reflist Plant taxonomy