Joseph Pitton de Tournefort had in 1688 received an appointment as professor at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, a position he is to hold until his death.

The French botanist and physician collects many plant species on scientific expeditions to the Pyrenees, Asia Minor, and Greece and acquired a wide reputation for his botanical works, particularly the beautifully illustrated Éléments de botanique (1694).

A pioneer in systematic botany, his system of plant classification represents a major advance in his day and remains, in some respects, valid to the present time.

Tournefort places primary emphasis on the classification of genera, basing his classification entirely upon the structure of the flower and fruit.

He is less innovative in theory, however, for he denies the sexuality of plants, and the classifications that he puts forward above the level of the genus are often artificial.

By his use of a single Latin name for the genus, followed by a few descriptive words for the species, he provides a major step in the development of the binomial nomenclature—that is, the use of a two-word Latin name to denote each species.