Ordo naturalis

In botany, the phrase ordo naturalis, 'natural order', was once used for what today is a

In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of de Candolle and the Genera Plantarum of Bentham & Hooker, the word ordo did indicate taxa that are now given the rank of family. Contemporary French works used the word famille for these same taxa. In the first international Rules of botanical nomenclature of 1906 the word family (familia) was assigned to this rank, while the term order (ordo) was reserved for a higher rank, for what in the nineteenth century had often been named a cohors (plural cohortes).^{[citation needed]}

The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants provides for names published in the rank of ordo naturalis in Art 18.2: normally, these are to be accepted as family names.^[1]

Some plant families retain the name they were given by pre-Linnaean authors, recognised by Linnaeus as "natural orders" (e.g.