Introduction to book
Authors of the biographical dictionary Osobnosti botaniky na Slovensku (Botanical Personalities of Slovakia) tried to fill in the gap noticed by botanical public for a long time and to summarize available informations about the outstanding personalities of classical and applied botany in Slovakia. Each generation brings new knowledge and new research trends. As the time goes by, many of them are overcame, some are forgotten, others evaluated, but all of them are inseparable part of the historical development. Time is running quickly and overrun by our duties, we more than often forget about the researchers and discoverers of the past. Therefore, the aim of editors as well as authors was to record historical facts as completely as possible, but at the same time to present also the view of our contemporaries on the botanical past. This will guarantee, that also the future generations would know about those who, more or less, contributed towards the development of the botany and related disciplines in Slovakia.
Our work on the biographical dictionary started in 1999, with great enthusiasm and effort to create a good and well-arranged publication, as soon as possible. From the very beginning we were strongly supported by the Slovak Botanical Society of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV). The first stages of work were done at the Slovak National Museum – Natural History Museum in Bratislava, but later we moved to the Botanical Institute (SAV) in Bratislava. We were aware of the fact, that only by gathering as many co-workers and consultants as possible, we would be able to meet the expectations of the botanical public. Very soon it became clear that to compile at least a simple dictionary in the originally planned space of time (3 years) was not possible.
The first step to be taken was to make a list of personalities who devoted their attention to plants. We had to decide, how deep to go to the world of plant research and exploitation, where to draw the line between botany and other specializations. In Slovakia, botany has been regarded as a scientific discipline relatively late, in fifties of the twentieth century, until then it was studied mostly abroad. People were always eager of knowledge, but common, often uneducated ones, learned about plants by utilizing them in agriculture, wine and fruit growing or medicine. That way they reveal ed the mysteries of the plant world. Research in natural history has begun later, with increasing education. There were more and more enthusiasts, amateurs at beginning, who later became highly appreciated specialists and number of professionals also increased. For that reason, we included in the dictionary also the people who, in the broadest sense, enriched the Slovak botany with their knowledge, experiences, publications, floristic activities, herbaria a. o. They were not all professionals, working in the basic research (taxonomists, physiologists, embryologists, algologists, mycologists, lichenologists, bryologists, dendrologists, pharmacists, foresters and breeders), but often amateur florists or outstanding fruit, flower and wine growers. We tried not to leave out those, who supplemented publications by their scientific illustrations and photos, those, who made a great deal of work in the field of plant protection and conservation, as well as those who devoted their research to the history of botany. All of them, more or less, enriched our knowledge of the natural wealth of Slovakia.
In the publication we present not only the personalities active in Slovakia, but also those of the Slovak origin, though living and working abroad. The science is without boundaries and therefore we could not ignore the work of researchers living in others, mostly neighboring countries. A great deal of work has been done especially at the time of the Austrian and later Austro-Hungarian monarchy, when several Hungarian, Austrian, Polish, Czech and other researches investigated the Slovak territory, mostly the Tatry region. After 1918, during the era of Czechoslovak Republic in all its formations, especially Czech botanists contributed significantly towards the research of Slovak flora, e.g. as authors or co-authors of Slovak Flora edition or by the researchof regional plant life. Therefore we really appreciated the help of foreign authors orconsultants, namely Halina Piękoś -Mirkowa a Ursula Bielczyk (Poland), VladimírAntonín, Karel Sutorý, Vladimír Řehořek, Věnceslava Rejzlová, Jiří Hadinec, Matilda Jatiová, Štěpán Husák, František Krahulec, Zdeněk Černohorský jun., Jiří Liška, Jarmila Hendrychová a Blanka Skočdopolová (Czech Republic), Günther Gottschlich, Harrie M. J. Sipman (Germany), Lydia Tasenkevich a Vitalij Ivanovych Honcharenko (Ukraine), Maria Olegovna Vorelova (Russsia), Lajos Somlyay a László Lökös (Hungary), Uve Passauer a Christa Riedl-Dorno (Austria).
Inseparable part of botanical research is building of collections, either in form of herbaria, or living plant collections in arboreta, rosaries, botanical gardens, medicinal plant gardens, orchards, breeding plots, vineyards, old cultivars collections, seed and fruit collections, mycological and algae cultures. Though primarily built by amateurs, often working in some society, they were later taken over by scientific, internationally recognized institutions, which continued in their work and preserve invaluable collections and specimens for future generations. Herbaria around the world often change owners, at past as well as recently and sometimes it is hard to follow the line of such transfers.
We had to take into account the number of until recently published data, but at the same time to fill in the less known or unknown, unpublished ones, mostly personal memories of the colleagues, co-workers or teachers or informations obtained from archives and researches. Most informations came from the numerous specialized books and encyclopedias, all of them were mentioned at each entry. However, new, original data were published, too. Certain entries were based on the personal memories of their authors. The data were filled in and/or revised by family members and other volunteers, mentioned as contributors.
In spite of great effort we failed to obtain all requested data for some personalities and question marks are found in entries, or data are incomplete. On the other side, large amount of data forced us to reduce the content of other entries and only to cite further literature and archive sources.
Marta Vozárová & Helena Šípošová, editors