scholarly journals Botany at Stefan Batory University in Vilna (Wilno, Vilnius) (1919–1939)

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 93-137
Author(s):  
Alicja Zemanek ◽  
Piotr Köhler

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. Botanika na Uniwersytecie Stefana Batorego w Wilnie (Vilna, Vilnius) (1919–1939) Abstrakt Uniwersytet w Wilnie (w języku angielskim: Vilna, obecnie: Vilnius w Republice Litewskiej), założony w 1579 r. przez Stefana Batorego, króla Polski i wielkiego księcia Litwy, był ośrodkiem polskiej botaniki w latach 1780–1832 oraz 1919–1939. W tym ostatnim okresie funkcjonował pod nazwą Uniwersytet Stefana Batorego (w języku angielskim: Stefan Batory University). W latach 1919–1939 zorganizowano następujące zakłady związane z botaniką: Botaniki Ogólnej, Farmakognozji i Hodowli Roślin Lekarskich, Systematyki Roślin, Ogród Botaniczny, Ogród Roślin Lekarskich oraz Muzeum Przyrodnicze. W ośrodku wileńskim pracowali wybitni uczeni, m.in. Jakub Mowszowicz (1901–1983), fitogeograf i fitosocjolog; Jan Muszyński (1884–1957), botanik i farmaceuta; Bronisław Szakien (1890–1938), cytolog i mykolog; Piotr Wiśniewski (1881–1971), fizjolog oraz Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), mykolog i fitopatolog. Badacze roślin ogłosili drukiem ok. 300 publikacji (w tym ok. 100 naukowych) dotyczących głównie morfologii i anatomii, cytologii, fizjologii roślin, florystyki (florystycznej geografii roślin), systematyki (taksonomii) roślin naczyniowych, mykologii i fitopatologii, ekologii zbiorowisk roślinnych (fitosocjologii), a także etnobotaniki i historii botaniki. Uniwersytet Stefana Batorego był również ważnym ośrodkiem nauczania i popularyzacji botaniki w tym regionie Europy. Celem artykułu jest opracowanie historii botaniki na Uniwersytecie Stefana Batorego w latach 1919–1939.

Author(s):  
Axel Dalberg Poulsen

The Botanical Garden in Oslo was established in 1814 and is the oldest part of the Natural History Museum, one of the two museums of the University of Oslo. To celebrate the bicentenary, the Museum decided to launch an ambitious programme of events covering the entire year and adding several new permanent assets. This paper provides a brief history of and current information about the Garden and describes the previously existing and new features, along with a map of the Garden. The bicentenary celebrations raised the profile of the Garden enormously in Norway, and it experienced a huge increase in visitor numbers as well as extensive media coverage. The increased popularity of the Garden and the expected future rise in population in the neighbouring suburbs simultaneously challenge the Garden to satisfy the need for green space as well as providing scientifically based information which reinforces the importance of plants.


Author(s):  
Daniel R. Headrick

In June 1735, The Twenty-Eight-Year-Old Carl Von Linné, Known To US as Linnaeus (1707–1778), arrived in the Netherlands to obtain a doctorate. He headed for Harderwijk, a little university town known for its instant degrees. After a few formalities, he presented his thesis, which he had brought with him from Sweden. Six days after arriving, he was awarded a doctor of medicine degree. Though Linnaeus was undoubtedly eager to get his degree, the real purpose of his trip was to meet other botanists. Before arriving, he had already lectured at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and had traveled to Lapland—then as remote and exotic as Siberia or North America—to seek plants unknown to botanists. He chose Holland because it was the home of the great naturalist Hermann Boerhaave(1668-1738), superintendent of the botanical garden at Leiden. With colonies in Brazil, the Caribbean, South Africa, and the East Indies, Holland was the European center for botanical studies. Linnaeus did not arrive empty-handed; he carried a short manuscript entitled Systema naturae (The system of nature), containing his ideas on the reformation of botany. Boerhaave was so impressed that he urged Linnaeus to join an expedition to southern Africa and the Americas, promising him a professorship at Leiden on his return. Linnaeus declined the offer but accepted another that was even better. George Clifford, a wealthy merchant, had filled his estate with the most extensive collection of plants in Holland and even a zoo. He invited young Linnaeus to become his personal physician and superintendent of his garden, with a large salary, a huge budget, and luxurious living accommodations. In the three years he spent in Holland, Linnaeus not only reorganized Clifford’s garden but also published fourteen works in quick succession. The first were Fundamenta botanica and Bibliotheca botanica, dealing with the history of botany up to that time. Systema naturae, also published in 1735, divided nature into three kingdoms—animal, vegetable, and mineral—and presented a method of classifying the plant kingdom by class, order, genus, and species.


2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Funk

In the history of botany, Adam Zalužanský (d. 1613), a Bohemian physician, apothecary, botanist and professor at the University of Prague, is a little-known personality. Linnaeus's first biographers, for example, only knew Zalužanský from hearsay and suspected he was a native of Poland. This ignorance still pervades botanical history. Zalužanský is mentioned only peripherally or not at all. As late as the nineteenth century, a researcher would be unaware that Zalužanský’s main work Methodi herbariae libri tres actually existed in two editions from two different publishers (1592, Prague; 1604, Frankfurt). This paper introduces the life and work of Zalužanský. Special attention is paid to the chapter “De sexu plantarum” of Zalužanský’s Methodus, in which, more than one hundred years before the well-known De sexu plantarum epistola of R. J. Camerarius, the sexuality of plants is suggested. Additionally, for the first time, an English translation of Zalužanský’s chapter on plant sexuality is provided.


Author(s):  
Akram Atalla ◽  
Ayman Dardona

There are numerous known medicinal plants in the Gaza strip flora, some of them are used in the traditional medicine but despite extensive studies of plants either wild or cultivated in Palestine, only a few articles are reported with the phytochemistry of these plants especially the poisonous flora. The current article presents the most common and important poisoning plants in the Gaza strip flora which are therefore important for the public to know and for research and awareness. This review is considered the first study that working in some details with the poisonous plants in the Gaza strip flora in terms of botany, phytochemistry and herbal medicine. These plants are distributed in several habitats in the Gaza strip, including Wadi Gaza, coastal areas, dunes, roadsides, national parks and the botanical garden in the University of Palestine.


The Ural State Law University solemnly celebrated its centenary. It updated the appeal to the past of the university, to the traditions of Russian legal education and science. The anniversary became simultaneously an event, an object of study, and a strategy for learning the legal-university history. The aim of the article is to defie promising, largely interrelated historical and legal subjects of the history of the law university. Multifaceted signifiance of the anniversary for the law university is considered: its role in the development of academic culture and corporate commemorative practices, in promoting the image of the university, in gaining new knowledge on the university, in studying the pre-institute period of its history (1918–1931). The problem of the sources of knowledge on the history of the USLU is defied. The particular importance of legitimizing the transition periods is described. For example, the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 1919 explicitly recognized the university in Irkutsk and the faculty of law as the basis of our university. The author raised the question of the need to interpret sources that are not typical for the law university history’ such as oral history, museum subjects. The article noted the importance of politics and ideology in the history of law university, as well as the prospects of its consideration through the prism of the anthropological approach.


Author(s):  
Taras Samchuk

The history of the first facilities of st. Vladimir University and its situation in the city in 1830-40s were not in the centre of special research before. That’s why the first period of the university existing can’t be fully described. For this reason, the aim of the study is to highlight the history of the first leased buildings of st. Vladimir University in the context of the formation of university space. The term “university space” will be applied to describe all the facilities of the university. This multi-concept will be specifically used to research the university’s physical space (the area of university buildings). This article is a part of series of articles dedicated to the early stage of existence of the university in Kyiv. This series of articles is the first attempt to describe university space in Kyiv by locating university facilities in the city space. This is the first step of reconstructing of the university life in Kyiv and studying out what features of university and city communication were in that time. The last stage of university space expansion during the first period of its existence was highlighted in the article. Particular attention was paid to the details of buildings construction. Information about the owners of facilities was also given in the article. Places of the situation of university facilities in the city space of Kyiv were highlighted in this research. The main attention was paid to the details of the buildings of students’ hospital, university’s church, house of poor students, units of the botanical garden and medical faculty facilities. A lot of archived and cartographical sources were used for this purpose. The unknown archived documents were used in the article. The study analyzed details of lease contracts of employment of homes for St. Vladimir University. The article indicates which collections and departments were located in each of the leased buildings. The main conclusions show that university covered big yards not only buildings. The facilities of the university were located next to the administrative centre of the city close to the most prestigious district of Kyiv ‒ Lypky, and Pechersk. St. Vladimir University started to expand very quickly, that’s why a lot of new facilities were leased during the first period of its history. The University expanded not only into the city’s physical space but also become very influent in creating of Kyiv cultural space.


Author(s):  
Jacopo Moggi Cecchi ◽  
Roscoe Stanyon

This volume is dedicated to the Anthropological and Ethnological section of the Natural History Museum. First the historical journey of the collections is traced from the antique nucleus of the Medici to the foundation of the National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, when Florence was the capitol of Italy, and the discipline of anthropology was born. The second part illustrates the multivariate collections from all over the globe. They are a precious record of the past and present biological and cultural diversity of our species opening wide horizons that rigorously connect science to the many faces of human culture, including art. The third section is dedicated to current research and opens new prospectives on the significance of ethnological and anthropological collections due to new technology and in light of a new appreciation of the museum as a living “zone of contact”.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
Jana Májeková ◽  
Ivan Jarolímek ◽  
Marica Zaliberová ◽  
Jana Medvecká

Abstract This article summarises the history of research into alien plants and plant communities in Slovakia (Central Europe). Earlier periods are reviewed briefly with reference to literature sources dealing with those periods more comprehensively. A milestone in the research was the publication of the Inventory of the alien flora of Slovakia in 2012 with a complete list of alien vascular plants. The last ten years are discussed more extensively in the article in four sections devoted to i) newly found alien plants, ii) distribution and habitat relations, iii) plant invasions, iv) citizen science based on the comprehensive excerption of literature sources. A list of 51 newly published alien taxa within the last ten years is also included with information on the year of their first occurrence in the wild in Slovakia.


2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale R. Calder

Thomas Hincks was born 15 July 1818 in Exeter, England. He attended Manchester New College, York, from 1833 to 1839, and received a B.A. from the University of London in 1840. In 1839 he commenced a 30-year career as a cleric, and served with distinction at Unitarian chapels in Ireland and England. Meanwhile, he enthusiastically pursued interests in natural history. A breakdown in his health and permanent voice impairment during 1867–68 while at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, forced him reluctantly to resign from active ministry in 1869. He moved to Taunton and later to Clifton, and devoted much of the rest of his life to natural history. Hincks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1872 for noteworthy contributions to natural history. Foremost among his publications in science were A history of the British hydroid zoophytes (1868) and A history of the British marine Polyzoa (1880). Hincks named 24 families, 52 genera and 360 species and subspecies of invertebrates, mostly Bryozoa and Hydrozoa. Hincks died 25 January 1899 in Clifton, and was buried in Leeds. His important bryozoan and hydroid collections are in the Natural History Museum, London. At least six genera and 13 species of invertebrates are named in his honour.


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