Page "Binomial nomenclature" Paragraph 8

Linnaeus's trivial names introduced an important new idea, namely that the function of a name could simply be to give a species a unique label.

This meant that the name no longer need be descriptive ; for example both parts could be derived from the names of people.

Thus Gerard's phalangium ephemerum virginianum became Tradescantia virginiana, where the genus name honoured John Tradescant the younger, an English botanist and gardener.

A bird in the parrot family was named Psittacus alexandri, meaning " Alexander's parrot ", after Alexander the Great whose armies introduced eastern parakeets to Greece.

Linnaeus ' trivial names were much easier to remember and use than the parallel polynomial names and eventually replaced them.