ABSTRACT
The Linnaean system recognised only three categories between the species and the kingdom—the genus, the order, and the class. The accepted zoological system of today recognises, in descending order, sub-kingdoms, phyla, subphyla, classes, subclasses, orders, suborders, superfamilies, families, subfamilies, tribes, genera and subgenera. In most groups of organisms, the classificatory work of the normal museum or herbarium systematist extends into the family group of categories, but rarely much above it—these professional systematists are not often concerned with classification in the 'order-class group' of categories. Museum systematists have a strong tendency to think about and discuss their work as essentially synthetic, though most of them probably practice a good deal more analysis than they are willing to admit. The practical utility of supra-specific classification is often questioned or denied today; the only useful function of a systematist, it is frequently asserted, is to name species.
