An annotated history of the principles of cultivated plant classification.

Important episodes in the history of the classification of cultivated plants are highlighted and commented upon in the light of recent developments in the systematics of cultivated plants. It is shown that throughout history, a division between classifying cultivated plants and plants as found in nature has existed in the minds of most taxonomists, but the slow development of systematic thought in cultivated plant taxonomy has slowed down progress in this field and left ample opportunity for too strong an influence of the taxon concept. As a result, the nomenclature of cultivated plants has always leaned heavily on the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.