Question

‘Ordines Anomali’ of Bentham and Hooker includes
A. Seed plants showing abnormal forms of growth and development.
B. Plants represented only in fossil states.
C. Plants described in the literature, but which Bentham and Hooker did not see in the original.
D. A few orders which could not be placed satisfactorily in the classification.

Answer 1

Hint: Bentham and Hooker gave a taxonomic system for seed plants or phanerogams called the Bentham and Hooker system. Classification of Phanerogams is given in their book called Genera Plantarum. The seeds plants were classified as Dicotyledons, Gymnosperms, Monocotyledons, and Ordines Anomali.

Complete answer: George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker were British botanists and they developed a natural system of classification for plants that produce seeds. Bentham and Hooker gave a series of three volumes between 1862 and 1883 regarding the classification of seed plants in their book named Genera Plantarum. Approximately 97,205 species of seed plants were placed into 202 families and 759 genera. They invented a taxonomic system for Phanerogams classification. Their botanical taxonomy system was based on the principle of natural affinities. Their principle is regarded as pre-Darwinian. They believed in reductional evolution and placed seed plants in three major categories. These are Dicotyledons, Gymnosperms, and Monocotyledons. In their classification system, they were unable to put some of the species in any of the above-mentioned orders. These plant species were not placed in any particular class and were regarded as disputed orders. They were given an individual order called Ordines Anomali.
Thus, option D is the correct answer.

Note: The various merits of the Bentham and Hooker system make it a reliable taxonomic system. It describes family and general very accurately and the system is handy to use for identification. This system is of good practical convenience. The British and commonwealth herbaria still use this system in arrangements of family.