Present status of Linnaean names of Indian Cryptogams

Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy provided a universal catalogue that described and classified living organisms. Linnaeus formulated a system of taxonomic code for treatment of each distinct organisms/species. Linnaeus used binomials, consistently, and for this reason, Latin/Greek names that naturalists used before Linnaeus are not usually considered valid under the rules of nomenclature. Linnaeus described and named hundreds of new plant species. He spent a great deal of time describing and naming new plant specimens that were sent to him around the world by many botanists, explorers and correspondents in Europe, America, and Africa. Fie also studied Indian specimens sent to him by the early European collectors in India. Linnaeus treatise Species Plantarum included more than 5000 species of plants, together with their definite descriptions and names. Since Linnaeus, the changes in taxonomic concept resulted in several new combinations in majority of the species. But some species maintained their original status as designated by Linnaeus. The Linnacan system was a pioneer in recognizing for the first time the non flowering plants as a major taxonomic category. He lumped together algae, lichens, fungi, mosses, bryophytes and ferns under Cryptogamia. Linnaeus believed that the number of species was constant, there were as many species at the beginning of the life as are present now. lie failed to perceive speciation, including common descent of several species from an ancestral species, and continuous process of extinction and origin of new species.