Aux pays des formes insolites : paysages botaniques et ordre naturel

Abstract

The primary mission of traveling botanists in the 18th century is to collect as many natural samples as possible to enrich the classificatory system on the one hand, and to highlight the usefulness of exotic flora on the other hand. This article will only focus on the first part of this project: we will show how certain naturalists are puzzled by an approach they find insufficient and oblivious to the affinities of plants as they manifest themselves in a given place, through a landscape which, better than any classificatory system, is capable of conveying the natural order. 

Keywords: botany, Linné, Adanson, Commerson, île de France, systems, landscapes.