< 1812-1867                       1875-1926                      1966-1986 >
Finally, the idea of evolution made it's way to the botanists. Erasmus Darwin thoughts, published almost 100 years before in Zoonomia, or, The Laws of Organic Life 1794-1796, which were so magnificently promoted by his grandson; Charles Darwin, gave a whole new perspective to taxonomy, and it were change once again. The first to use this thought were Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart in 1843, working with fossils, which gave a good fundament for Eichler in his system from 1875, but it took some years to become the main perspective.
 

1883

Cryptogramae: Thallophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyta
Phanaerogramae: Gymnosperms, Angioperms

August Wilhelm Eichler was born in Neukirchen, Hesse, Germany. He studied at University of Marburg and became professor of Botany in Technische Hochschule, Graz in 1871. In 1872 he received an appointment at the University of Kiel, where he remained until 1878, when he became director of the herbarium at the University of Berlin.

¨1900-68

1954-64

Engler's taxonomic work was also published in Das Pflanzenreich 1900-1968 and Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien 1924. It contained more than Angiospermae; even green algae, which most taxonomists do not include in Plantae, and it is still one of the most complete works on all plants and related.

The Angiospermae part of the system was slightly changed by H. Melchior in 1964, and after that, it contained 62 ordos with 343 families.
Main groups in 1964:
Divisio Embryophyta
 Subdivisio Angiospermae
  Classis Monocotyledoneae
  Classis Dicotyledoneae
   Subclassis Archychlamydeae
   Subclassis Sympetalae

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler was born in Sagan, Prussia (now Żagań), Poland. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) in 1866, and worked there for some years. Then he became the custodian of botanical collections of the Botanische Institute of Munich. In 1878, he got professorship at the University of Kiel. In 1884, he went back to Breslau as director of the Botanical Garden. From 1889 to 1921 he was professor at the University of Berlin and director of the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden.

Many plants are named in his honour, such as Englerastrum, Englerella, Engleria, Englerina, Englerocharis, Englerodaphne, Englerodendron and Englerophytum.
 

Richard Wettstein was born in Wien. He studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Vienna. He was a Professor at the University of Prague from 1892, and at the University of Vienna from 1899. He laid out the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna.
 

Charles Edwin Bessey was born in Milton Township, Wayne County, Ohio, USA. He studied at Michigan Agricultural College, and become instructor in botany and horticulture at Iowa College of Agriculture, where he becomes a full professor. In 1884, he is appointed professor of botany at University of Nebraska.

1959

1973

John Hutchinson's System was published in his  two volumes: Monocotyledonae in 1926, and Dicotyledonae in 1934 (2nd edition 1959; 3rd edition, 1973). The families of flowering plants, arranged according to a new system based on their probable phylogeny. It counts 328 families. It was a radical revision of the angiosperm classification system devised by Bentham & Hooker and by Engler & Prantl.

John Hutchinson was born in Blindburn, Wark on Tyne, Northumberland, England. Hutchinson worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, KEW from he was appointed a student gardener in 1904. He  was appointed Keeper of the Museums of Botany at KEW in 1936, where he worked until he retired in 1948, and started writing full time.

He made two extended collecting trips to South Africa, where he collected and described a huge amount of plants.

 Commemorated in the genus Hutchinsonia  by Robyns.

  < 1812-1867                       1875-1926                      1966-1989 >