History of plant systematics

The *Vienna Dioscurides* manuscript of *De Materia Medica*, from the early sixth century, is one of the oldest herbals in existence. Dioscorides wrote the book between 50 and 60 AD.

The history of plant systematics—the biological classification of plants—stretches from the work of ancient Greek to modern evolutionary biologists. As a field of science, plant systematics came into being only slowly, early plant lore usually being treated as part of the study of medicine. Later, classification and description was driven by natural history and natural theology. Until the advent of the theory of evolution, nearly all classification was based on the scala naturae. The professionalization of botany in the 18th and 19th century marked a shift toward more holistic classification methods, eventually based on evolutionary relationships.