Alicja Zemanek

The university in Vilna (in Polish: Wilno, now: Vilnius, Lithuania), founded in 1579, by Stefan Batory (Stephen Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was a centre of Polish botany in 1780–1832 and 1919–1939.

In the latter period the university functioned under the Polish name Uniwersytet Stefana Batorego (in English: Stefan Batory University). It comprised six departments connected with botany (General Botany, Pharmacognosy and Cultivation of Medicinal Plants, Plant Taxonomy, Botanical Garden, Garden of Medicinal Plants, and Natural History Museum).

There worked such distinguished scientists, as: Jakub Mowszowicz (1901–1983), phytogeographer and phytosociologist; Jan Muszyński (1884–1957), botanist and pharmacist; Bronisław Szakien (1890–1938), cytologist and mycologist; Piotr Wiśniewski (1881––1971), physiologist; and Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), mycologist and phytopathologist. Ca. 300 publications (including ca. 100 scientific ones) were printed in the period investigated, dealing mainly with morphology and anatomy, cytology, plant physiology, floristics (floristic geography of plants), systematics (taxonomy) of vascular plants, mycology and phytopathology, ecology of plant communities (phytosociology), as well as ethnobotany, and history of botany. Stefan Batory University was also an important centre of teaching and popularization of botany in that region of Europe.

The aim of the article is to describe the history of botany at the Stefan Batory University in 1919–1939.

Interdisciplinary studies on the role of plants in culture are rare, that is why a rich plant ornamentation of the churches in Poland is little known. This article presents the first documentation of the plant ornaments in nine Roman Catholic churches of Kiełczygłów Community and surroundings in Łódź Voivodeship, which were built from the 16th into the 20th centuries. The first stage of work was to take 385 photographs, then to organize a basis with 505 records, one record containing one plant ornament. As a result of botanical analysis 39 taxa were determined, including 17 species, 18 genera, and 4 families. Some of the plant motifs could not be identified because of strong stylization. The most frequent taxa were the old useful plants popular in sacral art, originating in southern or south-eastern regions of Europe and in West Asia: bear’s-breech (Acanthus sp1.), rose (Rosa sp.), Madonna lily (Lilium candidum L.), and grape-vine (Vitis vinifera L.). Some ornaments present the plants occurring in wild in Poland or as field and meadow weeds, e.g. bellflower (Campanula sp.) or poppy (Papaver sp.). The greatest number of ornaments was identified in the neo-Gothic St. Casimir Church in Osjaków. Captivating in their colors and diversity of shapes, the plant ornaments serve not only decorative functions, but symbolic ones as well. This article hopes to contribute, at least to a small extent, to the reflection on the presence of plants in our culture and to raise the awareness of how important it is to protect local species that perish irretrievably due to anthropogenic activity.

Abstract
The university in Vilna (Lithuanian: Vilnius), now Vilniaus universitetas, founded in 1579 by Stefan Batory (Stephen Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was a centre of Polish botany in 1780-1832 and 1919-1939. The Botanic Garden established by Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert (1741–1814) in 1781 (or, actually, from 1782) survived the loss of independence by Poland (1795), and a later closure of the University (1832), and it continued to function until 1842, when it was shut down by Russian authorities. After Poland had regained independence and the University was reopened as the Stefan Batory University (SBU), its Botanic Garden was established on a new location (1919, active since 1920). It survived as a Polish institution until 1939. After the Second World War, as a result of changed borders, it found itself in the Soviet Union, and from 1990 – in the Republic of Lithuania.
A multidisciplinary research project has been recently launched with the aim to create a publication on the history of science at the Stefan Batory University. The botanical part of the project includes, among others, drafting the history of the Botanic Garden. Obtaining electronic copies of archival documents, e.g. annual reports written by the directors, enabled a more thorough analysis of the Garden’s history.
Piotr Wiśniewski (1884–1971), a plant physiologist, nominated as Professor in the Department of General Botany on 1 June 1920, was the organiser and the first director of the Garden. He resigned from his post in October 1923, due to financial problems of the Garden. From October 1923 to April 1924, the management was run by the acting director, Edward Bekier (1883–1945), Professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. For 13 subsequent years, i.e. from 1 May 1924 to 30 April 1937, the directorship of the Garden was held by Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), a mycologist and one of the pioneers of phytopathology in Poland, Head of the Department of Botany II (Agricultural Botany), renamed in 1926 as the Department of Plant Taxonomy, and in 1937 – the Department of Taxonomy and Geography of Plants.
From May 1937 to 1939, his successor as director was Franciszek Ksawery Skupieński (1888–1962), a researcher of slime moulds.
Great credit for the development of the Garden is due to the Inspector, i.e. Chief Gardener, Konstanty Prószyński (Proszyński) (1859–1936) working there from 1919, through his official nomination in 1920, until his death. He was an amateur-naturalist, a former landowner, who had lost his property. Apart from the work on establishing and maintaining the Garden’s collection, as well as readying seeds for exchange, he published one mycological paper, and prepared a manuscript on fungi, illustrated by himself, containing descriptions of the new species. Unfortunately, this work was not published for lack of funds, and the prepared material was scattered. Some other illustrations of flowering plants drawn by Prószyński survived. There were some obstacles to the further development of the institution, namely substantially inadequate funds as well as too few members of the personnel (1–3 gardeners, and 1–3 seasonal workers).
The area of the Garden, covering approx. 2 hectares was situated on the left bank of the Neris river (Polish: Wilia). It was located on sandy soils of a floodplain, and thus liable to flooding. These were the reasons for the decision taken in June 1939 to move the Garden to a new site but the outbreak of the Second World War stood in the way. Despite these disadvantageous conditions, the management succeeded in setting up sections of plants analogous to these established in other botanical gardens in Poland and throughout the world, i.e. general taxonomy (1922), native flora (1922), psammophilous plants (1922), cultivated plants (1924/1925), plant ecology (1927/1928), alpinarium (1927–1929), high-bog plants (1927–1929), and, additionally – in the 1920s – the arboretum, as well as sections of aquatic and bog plants. A glasshouse was erected in 1926–1929 to provide room for plants of warm and tropical zones. The groups representing the various types of vegetation illustrated the progress in ecology and phytosociology in the science of the period (e.g. in the ecology section, the Raunkiaer’s life forms were presented). The number of species grown increased over time, from 1,347 in 1923/1924 to approx. 2,800 in 1936/1937. Difficult weather conditions – the severe winter of 1928 as well as the snowless winter and the dry summer of 1933/34 contributed to the reduction of the collections. The ground collections, destroyed by flood in spring of 1931, were restored in subsequent years. Initially, the source of plant material was the wild plant species collected during field trips. Many specimens were also obtained from other botanical gardens, such as Warsaw and Cracow (Kraków). Beginning from 1923, printed catalogues of seeds offered for exchange were published (cf. the list on p. ... ). Owing to that, the Garden began to participate in the national and international plant exchange networks. From its inception, the collection of the Garden was used for teaching purposes, primarily to the students of the University, as well as for the botanical education of schoolchildren and the general public, particularly of the residents of Vilna. Scientific experiments on phytopathology were conducted on the Garden’s plots.
After Vilna was incorporated into Lithuania in October 1939, the Lithuanian authorities shut down the Stefan Batory University, thus ending the history of the Polish Botanic Garden. Its area is now one of the sections of the Vilnius University Botanic Garden (“Vingis” section – Vilniaus universiteto botanikos sodas). In 1964, its area was extended to 7.35 hectares. In 1974, after establishing the new Botanic Garden in Kairenai to the east of Vilnius, the old Garden lost its significance. Nevertheless, it still serves the students and townspeople of Vilnius, and its collections of flowering plants are often used to decorate and grace the university halls during celebrations.
 

Józef Warszewicz (1812–1866) – traveler and naturalist, the main horticulturist (inspector) of the Botanic Garden of theJagiellonian University in Kraków, was one of the first plant collectors in the tropical regions of Central and South America. From his travels (1844–1850, 1850–1853) he sent and brought to Europe hundreds of previously unknown plants, primarily orchids, in addition to representatives of other families.

One of the collected species was Warszewiczia coccinea (red warszewiczia in English, warszewiczia czerwona in Polish), described by Johann F. Klotzsch and named after the collector. It is a small tree or shrub with large, red inflorescences, growing wild in the American tropics and often cultivated as an ornamental. It plays a significant role in the culture of the island country of Trinidad and Tobago in the Little Antilles archipelago, where it is considered a “national plant”.

The aim of this article is to highlight one of the chapters in the history of systematics (taxonomy) relating to Józef Warszewicz and the plants described on the basis of his collections, especially red warszewiczia.

Many of the so-called “Warszewicz species” have survived in the taxonomy to this day. His unique collection is stored in the Herbarium of the Jagiellonian University – Herbarium Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis – KRA. There are specimens important to the science – lectotypes (model representations) of the species Warszewiczia pulcherrima (= W. coccinea).

Article available under CC BY-NC-ND  license.

License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/pl/legalcode   

The Museum of the Botanic Garden, the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (the oldest Polish botanical garden founded in 1783) holds materials illustrating scientific and didactic activity of the Cracow botanical centre. In 1983, exhibition was arranged in the Garden, on the first floor of the Śniadecki Collegium. The botanical collection includes dendrological and carpological (fruits and seeds) specimens, as well as plant organs stored in liquid, gathered in the Botanic Garden or during field research of botanists in Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and the polar regions, mostly in the 19–21th centuries. Among the largest, there is the collection of Marian Raciborski (1863–1917) (Java, Indonesia, 1896–1900). Additionally, the Museum holds various materials about the history of botany. The subject of the exhibition is the history of the Cracow Botanic Garden and various tropical specimens from Africa, and Asia, as well as plants and lichens from the polar regions. Temporary exhibitions are mostly devoted to the plant motives in art. The research program focuses on the history of botany, ethnobotany, as well as the question of the relations between nature, science, and culture. Throughout the year the Museum is open to students, while normal visitors may access the Museum in time the Botanic Garden is open i.e. from April to October.