An Insight into Taxonomy

Summary

This article provides an overview of plant taxonomy with other analysis and commentary to enable readers to make better use of the information in Rajan Sankaran‘s ‘Insight into Plants', published in 2002. Sankaran has made a convincing case that the taxon called the family is relevant from the homeopathic perspective since patients needing plant remedies from the same family share common sensations. Most of Sankaran's groupings are supported by contemporary botanical classification, but five of the groupings are problematic from the taxonomic viewpoint, probably because he has relied on outdated sources to draw them together. His Conifers, Violales, Hamamelidae, Magnolianae, and Liliiflorae groupings, which are composed of plants sharing higher taxa in common than the botanical family, are shown to have overlap, potentially premature generalization and/or other problems. Continued work is encouraged to address these shortcomings.

Key words

Plant taxonomy - Sankaran's Insight - Vital sensation

Additional Resources

• 1 Sankaran R. Insight into Plants. Mumbai; Homoeopathic Medical Publishers 2002
• 2 Clarke J H. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 2000
• 3 The Compleat Botanica. http://www.crescentbloom.com/default.htm
• 4 Naming and Classification of Fungi. http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect04_a.htm
• 5 Wichmann J. E-mail Correspondence with Author, October 11, 2004 - May 10, 2005. 

1 Reveal, James, Origin, Evolution and Diversity of the Flowering Plants (Magnoliophyta): The “Sneaky Herbs” Hypothesis, Lecture Notes, Norton-Brown Herbarium, University of Maryland, 17 March 1997, downloaded 6 October 2004 from: www.life.umd.edu/emeritus/reveal/pbio/pb250/sneaky.html. Genetic analyses suggest that a dicotyledonous water lily may have been the first flowering plant, however. See www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/12.16/angiosperms.html.

2 The statements made in this paper regarding remedy plants taxonomic classification are supported by the current International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

3 When the homeopathic and scientific names of a remedy plant are the same, I have followed the scientific convention of italicizing the genus and species names.

4 Sankaran, Dr. Rajan, ‘An Insight Into Plants, Volume I’, Homoeopathic Medical Publishers, Mumbai: 2002, second page of Note to the Reader.

5 In fact, some alternative contemporary taxonomic schemes would regard the Pinopsida as its own separate division. For a more exclusionary view of gymnosperm taxonomy, see www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/seedplants/seedplantssy.html and www.botit.botany.wisc.edu/courses/systematics/Phyla/Phylum_directory. html.

6 ‘An Insight Into Plants, Volume II’, p. 920.

7 An extensive list of Cucurbitaceae plants, including twenty that have apparently been potentised is given in Stallinga, Erna, The gourd or pumpkin family: Some botanical facts about the Cucurbitaceae, Homoeopathic Links, Volume 12 (5/99): 280.

8 Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae) and Ericaceae sensations are given in Sankaran's Schema.

9 Even according to Wichmann's taxonomy, the Hamamelidae remedies represent a widely spread grouping: nine families and five orders which would need the subclass taxon to encompass the grouping.

10 ‘An Insight Into Plants, Volume I’, p. 364. Arthur Cronquist (1919 - 1992) was a pioneer in botanical classification, publishing the landmark work, ‘An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants' in 1981. However, he was unwilling to make major changes to his system to reflect new information. For a critical review of Cronquist's last major work, ’The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants', published in 1988, see: www.sasb.org.au/Cronquist.