In article , Richard Brooks
writes
I've got an old book (30s) entitled The Wright Encyclopaedia of Gardening
and the plant description structure is

Order: A division of the Vegetable Kingdom
Genus: A subsidiary part of the Order.
Species: A subsidiary part to the Genus.

So, are the terms different today ?


Richard.

The old concept of an Order is more like the modern concept of a Family.
Nowadays both terms are used. For example the family Rosaceae contains
apples, pears, quinces, cherries, roses, brambles, avens, cinquefoils,
meadowsweets, kerrias, spiraeas, and many other plants. The order
Rosales (sensu APG II) includes the family Rosaceae, and 8 other
families, including buckthorns, elms, hemp, mulberries and nettles.

Botanists trying to represent classifications of large numbers of plants
use several more ranks - Domain, Kingdom, Division or Phylum, Class,
Order, Family, Tribe, Genus, Section, Series, Species, Variety and Form,
plus sub- and super- forms on occasion - subfamily, subgenus and
subspecies are quite commonly used, and I've seen quite a few of the
others in the literature.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley