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.
Giulio Preti
