“Jussieu’ thorough study of the genera and families of flowering plants (1774-1789) resulted in the publication of his epoch-making Genera plantarum (1789). For this work Jussieu had at his disposal not only the rich collections of living plants at the royal garden, but also his uncle’s and his own rich herbarium, as well as the collections made by Philibert Commerson on his world voyage with Bougainville; the Commerson collections proved to be of critical importance for the inclusion of many tropical angiosperm families. Through an exchange of specimens, Jussieu also had access to part of Sir Joseph Banks’s collections from Cook’s first voyage, and another valuable London contact was with James Edward Smith, Owner of Linnaeus’s herbarium.

The Genera plantarum soon found its way to centers of botanical research. With excellent generic description, the book presented a through summary of current knowledge of plant taxonomy. The genera were arranged in a natural system based upon the correlation of a great number of characteristics, a system which proved to be so well designed that within a few decades it was accepted by all leading European botanists, the most active proponents being Robert Brown and A. P. de Candolle. Jussieu’s arrangement of families is among those elements of the Genera plantarum that remain a part of the contemporary system of classification.”

Horblit 68b
Pritzel 4549
Hunt 703