The Linnean Society of London are a very busy bunch. This week alone, they’ve been involved with the Chelsea Flower Show and that Swedish vessel I blogged about a couple of days ago. Today, they launched a new book as part of the continuing celebrations of the Carl Linnaeus tercentenary.

Order Out of Chaos: Linnaean Plant Names and Their Types, by Dr Charlie Jarvis, provides an A–Z catalogue of Linnaean plant names. Linnaeus, as you probably know, introduced the binomial system of describing the flora and fauna (and even the rocks) that make our planet such a pleasant place to live. Since his time, many thousands of plant species have been catalogued by this method.

Botanical classification today begins with a ‘type specimen’. This is the original specimen, as designated by the person describing the new species. The type specimen serves as a ‘fixed point’ around which further members of the species show variety. This system helps make sense of diversity by fixing on a ‘gold standard’ for each species.

Linnaeus did not use this modern system of types. To bring his nomenclature into line with modern research, the Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project has worked since 1981 to find type specimens for all of Linnaeus’ plant names.

The new book is the fruit of that labour. It lists over 9000 Linnaean names and their typifications, along with explanatory notes, background information and many illustrations. At a mammoth 1025 pages, this rich resource would be perfect for pressing plants, as well as classifying them.

Order Out Of Chaos: Linnaean Plant Names and Their Types is publshed by the Linnean Society of London and the Natural History Museum. Buy it for £80 from the Linnean Society.