<Li> Tvaksaras--plants hollow inside with strong barks like bamboos . </Li> <P> Organisms were first classified by Aristotle (Greece, 384--322 BC) during his stay on the Island of Lesbos . He classified beings by their parts, or in modern terms attributes, such as having live birth, having four legs, laying eggs, having blood, or being warm - bodied . He divided all living things into two groups: plants and animals . Some of his groups of animals, such as Anhaima (animals without blood, translated as invertebrates) and Enhaima (animals with blood, roughly the vertebrates), as well as groups like the sharks and cetaceans, are still commonly used today . His student Theophrastus (Greece, 370--285 BC) carried on this tradition, mentioning some 500 plants and their uses in his Historia Plantarum . Again, several plant groups currently still recognized can be traced back to Theophrastus, such as Cornus, Crocus, and Narcissus . </P> <P> Taxonomy in the Middle Ages was largely based on the Aristotelian system, with additions concerning the philosophical and existential order of creatures . This included concepts such as the Great chain of being in the Western scholastic tradition, again deriving ultimately from Aristotle . Aristotelian system did not classify plants or fungi, due to the lack of microscope at the time, as his ideas were based on arranging the complete world in a single continuum, as per the scala naturae (the Natural Ladder). This, as well, was taken into consideration in the Great chain of being . Advances were made by scholars such as Procopius, Timotheos of Gaza, Demetrios Pepagomenos, and Thomas Aquinas . Medieval thinkers used abstract philosophical and logical categorizations more suited to abstract philosophy than to pragmatic taxonomy . </P> <P> During the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment, categorizing organisms became more prevalent, and taxonomic works became ambitious enough to replace the ancient texts . This is sometimes credited to the development of sophisticated optical lenses, which allowed the morphology of organisms to be studied in much greater detail . One of the earliest authors to take advantage of this leap in technology was the Italian physician Andrea Cesalpino (1519--1603), who has been called "the first taxonomist". His magnum opus De Plantis came out in 1583, and described more than 1500 plant species . Two large plant families that he first recognized are still in use today: the Asteraceae and Brassicaceae . Then in the 17th century John Ray (England, 1627--1705) wrote many important taxonomic works . Arguably his greatest accomplishment was Methodus Plantarum Nova (1682), in which he published details of over 18,000 plant species . At the time, his classifications were perhaps the most complex yet produced by any taxonomist, as he based his taxa on many combined characters . The next major taxonomic works were produced by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (France, 1656--1708). His work from 1700, Institutiones Rei Herbariae, included more than 9000 species in 698 genera, which directly influenced Linnaeus, as it was the text he used as a young student . </P>

Who developed a scheme of classification known as the ladder of life