 When the word "ordo" was first consistently used for natural units of plants, in 19th century works such as the "Prodromus" of de Candolle and the "Genera Plantarum" of Bentham & Hooker, it indicated taxa that are now given the rank of family (see "ordo naturalis", "natural order").In French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson's "Familles naturelles des plantes" (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word "famille" (plural