found convenient. Let us take the example of mango to understand the way of providing scientific names better. The scientific name of mango is written as Mangifera indica . Let us see how it is a binomial name.
In this name Mangifera represents the genus while indica, is a particular species, or a specific epithet. Other universal rules of nomenclature are as follows: . Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics. They are Latinised or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin.
. The first word in a biological name represents the genus while the second component denotes the specific epithet. . Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten, are separately underlined, or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
. The first word denoting the genus starts with a capital letter while the specific epithet starts with a small letter. It can be illustrated with the example of Mangifera indica . Name of the author appears after the specific epithet, i.e., at the end of the biological name and is written in an abbreviated form, e.g., Mangifera indica Linn.
It indicates that this species was first described by Linnaeus. Since it is nearly impossible to study all the living organisms, it is necessary to devise some means to make this possible. This process is classification . Classification is the process by which anything is grouped into convenient categories based on some easily observable characters.
For example, we easily recognise groups such as plants or animals or dogs, cats or insects. The moment we use any of these terms, we associate certain characters with the organism in that group. What image do you see when you think of a dog ? Obviously, each one of us will see ‘dogs’ and not ‘cats’.
Now, if we were to think of ‘Alsatians’ we know what we are talking about. Similarly, suppose we were to say ‘mammals’, you would, of course, think of animals with external ears and body hair. Likewise, in plants, if we try to talk of ‘Wheat’, the picture in each of our