# Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica issue Linnaeus’s naming rules and genera

Date: 1737

## The fact

In 1737 [Carl Linnaeus](/people/carl-linnaeus) issued Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica, setting diagnoses of genera and rules for names that European botanists could share. Species Plantarum’s consistent binomials of 1753 are a later Fact. The cohesion claim is a common language, not a claim that every local name died. John Ray’s earlier genera are not erased.

## Context

Polynomials were getting longer as New World plants arrived. Linnaeus offered brevity and rules against commemorative chaos, while still commemorating patrons. Printers and Clifford’s purse shared the object. Sharing does not erase the author. Later ICN articles are other people’s statutes, not this 1737 pair.

Shared responsibility is part of Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica issue Linnaeus’s naming rules and genera. Naming Carl Linnaeus does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1737-01-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

## Evidence and sources

Biodiversity Heritage Library’s Species Plantarum scan at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13829 is the later public carrier of the naming project those 1737 books prepared. Britannica at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carolus-Linnaeus independently lists Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica among the Dutch-year books. The URLs differ.

Official or archival record: Species Plantarum (1753) — Biodiversity Heritage Library (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13829; Biodiversity Heritage Library).

## Significance

[Social-cohesion](/drivers/social-cohesion) path among botanists. Modest-to-mid weight. High confidence on 1737 publication.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica appeared in 1737. Not established: that they are the legal starting point of later codes, which they are not. Contribution is recorded as He wrote the naming rules and generic diagnoses. Dutch printers issued them beside Clifford work. The impact note is Shared Latin naming rules let distant botanists talk about the same plants, a cohesion path, not a later legal code. The dated heading stays Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica issue Linnaeus’s naming rules and genera on 1737-01-01, not a later statue, UNESCO listing, or school film. Printers, unnamed clerks, and later editors may appear in the same file without becoming this instrument. Later competitions, monuments, and adaptations are refused as extra lifetime acts of this person on this date.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. 1737 rules are not the 1753 species list and not ICN. Mixed effects of Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica issue Linnaeus’s naming rules and genera are separate paths.

The contribution type is direct. The attached driver is social-cohesion. The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

## People

- Carl Linnaeus: https://factrail.ai/people/carl-linnaeus

## Drivers

- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13829
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carolus-Linnaeus

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/linnaeus-genera-1737