Rafinesque’s family moved to France the year following his
birth, and at age nineteen Rafinesque became an apprentice in
the mercantile house of the Clifford Brothers in Philadelphia.
He returned to Europe in 1805 and spent the next decade in
Sicily, where he was secretary to the U. S. consul. During this
time his first scientific books were published. He returned to
the United States in 1815 and remained in America the rest of
his life, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1832. He was
professor of botany and natural science at Transylvania
University in Lexington, Kentucky from 1819 to 1826. The early
conclusion by Rafinesque that the taxonomic categories called
species and genera are man-made generalizations which have no
physical existence led to his deep appreciation of variation in
plants. He understood that such variation, through time, will
lead to the development of what we call new species. But he had
no explanation for the cause of variation, though he did
consider hybridity a possible mechanism and,