Introduction Page 16 in Class Notes Taxonomy may be defined as the study and description of the variation of organisms, the investigation of the causes and consequences of this variation, and the manipulation of the data to produce a system of classification. Taxonomy is universal, not restricted to plants or even living organisms.
Taxonomy is at the same time the most basic and the most derived or synthetic field of biology.
It is basic because a system of naming and classifying organisms is needed in order to communicate knowledge about them to others, and hence every field of biology uses the results of taxonomy. It is also the most derived field because it has no data of its own, but uses those from every other discipline, thus progressing with advances in accumulated knowledge and technology. I rank with the most valuable sciences, whether we consider its subjects as furnishing the principal subsistence of life to man and beast, delicious varieties for our tables, refreshments from our orchards, the adornments of our flower borders, shade and perfume of our groves, materials for our building, or medicaments for our bodies. A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower, the idea of flowers.