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Linnaeus & the Sex Lives of

If there was a Hall of Fame, we (1758), the first edition to use the bino- why most of the details of his system could all name several of its members. mial system consistently throughout. were abandoned by early in the 19th Topping the list would be Charles Dar- Although Linnaeus is best known for century. Today, all that survives of win; other members would probably his use of binomials as names for or- Linnaeus' system is its method of hier- include folks such as Virchow, Watson, ganisms, he also went to great ex- archical classification and its custom of Crick, Carson, Harvey, Hooke, and tremes to liken reproduction in plants binomial . others. Most of us would also include to sexuality and love. For ex- Like scientists and philosophers such Carl Linne, a Swedish physician and ample, Linnaeus' system of classifica- as and Darwin, Linnaeus in- naturalist better known to biologists tion was based on nuptiae plantarum- fused nature with gender and sexual- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/59/3/132/47867/4450266.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 and other scientists by his Latinized "the marriages of plants." That system ity. His hierarchical system for classi- name: Carolus Linnaeus.' involved "wedding gowns," plants fying plants was based on the number Many biologists consider Linnaeus functioning as "husbands" and and arrangement of the 's repro- (1707-1778)-probably the greatest ob- "wives" (Linnaeus viewed anything fe- ductive parts. Different organs had dif- servational biologist of his day-to be male as a wife), and plants enjoying sex ferent taxonomic importance: "male" The Father of . Linnaeus' in "bridal beds" made of flower petals. organs (i.e. the , which were monumental two-volume work "Plants" that lacked obvious sex or- likened to the vas deferens, testes, and Plantarum (published in 1753) de- gans-for example, the , bryo- seminal fluid) were given more taxo- scribed more than 7,000 kinds of phytes, fungi, and -were classi- nomic importance than "female" or- plants. In those books, Linnaeus short- fied as "cryptogamia," or "plants that gans (i.e. the pistils, which were lik- ened cumbersome, more-than-a-mouth- marry secretly." ened to the vulva, vagina, and ful names such as Mentha floribus capi- Sexuality infused virtually all of Lin- fallopian tube). This reflected 18th-cen- tatusfoliis lanceolatisserratis subpetiolatis naeus' works. What he wrote in 1729 tury values and culture. Linnaeus' ("Mint with flowers in a head, leaves reads like a romance novel: judgments were not based on empirical lance-shaped, saw-toothed, with very evidence, but rather on traditional te- short petioles") to binomials such as Theflowers' leaves ... serve as bridal beds nets of gender-related bias. Unfortu- Mentha piperita. We still use many of which the Creator has so gloriously ar- nately, such biases persist. the binomials that were published by ranged, adorned with such noble bed cur- Surely taxonomy would be different Linnaeus almost 250 years ago. tains, and perfumed with so many soft if women had been among the 18th- Contrary to what's written in many scents that the bridegroomwith his bride introductory biology books, Linnaeus might therecelebrate their nuptials with so century taxonomists. Surely science was not the first person to use binomi- much the greater solemnity ... would be different if women had not als as names for organisms. However, been excluded from our profession for Linnaeus was often sexually explicit: so long. he was the first biologist to use them he imagined that plants have vaginas consistently; that's why the taxonomic and penises (some people of his day names that biologists used before Lin- referred to plant sexuality as "coitus of Randy Moore naeus are usually not considered valid. vegetables"). Since ABT is a family Editor Today, Linnaeus' works are considered magazine, I'll not list examples of to be the starting points for modern other, more sexually explicit aspects of : the oldest Linnaeus' system of classification. Suf- plant names accepted as valid are those fice it to say that Linnaeus' sexual published in . Simi- explicitness raised serious moral con- All material that appears in The larly, the oldest recognized names of cerns among Linnaeus' contemporar- American Biology Teacher(includ- are those published in the 10th ies. Opponents of Linnaeus' system, ing editorials, letters, articles, edition of Linnaeus' who were referred to as "anti-sexual- etc....) reflects the views of the ists," described Linnaeus' system as author(s) and/or advertisers, "loathsome harlotry" that was "ob- I For more information about Linnaeus and and does not necessarily reflect his ideas, see Carolus Linnaeus (http:/ / scene," "enough to shock female mod- www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus. esty," and "far beyond all decent lim- the views of the National Asso- html) and Schiebinger, L. 1996. The loves of its." These concerns about Linnaeus' ciation of Biology Teachers. the plants. Scientific American, 274, 110-115. system, as well as its artificiality, are

132 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER,VOLUME 59, NO. 3, MARCH 1997