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

The university in Vilna (in Polish: Wilno, now: Vilnius, Lithua­nia), founded in 1579, by Stefan Batory (Stephen Bathory), 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 Muszynski (1884–1957), botanist and pharmacist; Bronislaw Szakien (1890–1938), cytologist and mycologist; Piotr Wiśniewski (1881–1971), physiologist; and Jozef Trzebinski (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.