NOMENCLATURE

From the earliest times plants and animals have been given common names by the people. Since no system   ‘Onion’ for example; its common Urdu name is ‘piyaz’ but in different region of Pakistan it is also known as ‘ganda’ or ‘bassal’ or ;vassal’. In different countries it would have another set of names. Similarly ‘amaltas’, ‘argvad’, ‘gurmala’, ’golden shower’, purging cassia’ are common names for the same plant. Thus the same plant may have different names. In some cases, a single name refers to several different plants or animals. What is ‘blue bell’? Dozen of plants with bell shaped flowers are called ‘blue bells’. Similarly the word ‘black bird’  would mean a crow as well as a raven. common names have no scientific basis. To the biologist, a fish is a vertebrate animal with a backbone, fins and gills. But ‘silver fish’ is an insect, and a ‘Cray fish’ , ‘jelly fish’, and ‘starfish’ do not fit the biologist’s definitions of a fish.

was used in choosing common names, in many cases, various region and their own names for the same plant and animal. Take

      Common names had long caused confusion. During the 18^th century, Carlous Linnaeus (1707-1778), a Swedish botanist, devised a system for naming of classifying all the organisms know to him. His system is used today internationally. He discarded the common names of plants and give each one a scientific name. He took the scientific name from Latin word. Linnaeus published the list of names of plants in 1753. The scientific name if each plant had two parts. Usually, the name referred to some characteristics of the organism or the person who collected it. His system spread rapidly and become so popular that he used it later on in naming animals and published his list in 1758. many of his names are in use today.

      Linnaeus ‘s system of giving each species a scientific name comprising two words is known as  binomial nomenclature. The first refers to the genus (pl. genera) and is called generic name and always begins with a capital later. The  specific name follows the generic name and begins with small later. Scientific for onion is Allium cepa, for amaltas cassia fistula and for man Homo sapiens. Botanical name for potato is solanum tuberosum and for brinjal salanum melangena. The same generic name for potato and brinjal reflects close relationship between these two species. Every species has only one scientific name the world over. Initially the classification was based on the appearance or morphology of plants and animals but with advancement in the knowledge of cytology, physiology, genetics and molecular biology the classification of organism has been modified.s