Charles BesseyBessey based his system on the classifications of de Candolle, Bentham and Hooker and Hallier He taught that taxonomy must be based on evolutionary principles, according to the ideas of Darwin and Wallace. He placed the Ranales at the origin of
Angiospermae, like Wettstein.
He considered
Spermatophyta as having a polyphyletic origin, being composed by three different phyla, of which he only treated
Angiospermae. In that he used the same names for the subclasses of both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, this is contrary to contemporary rules on plant nomenclature that require names to be unique. However Bessey actually used a qualifying hyphenation (Alternifoliae-Strobiloideae and Oppositifoliae-Strobiloideae), a distinction not always recognised in reference to this scheme.
Most modern classifications, like those of Cronquist, Takhtajan, Stebbins, R. Dahlgren and Thorne follow the Bessey tradition.
The genus Benthamiella was named in Bentham's honour.