Volume 52 (2018): Edition 1 (December 2018)

Pre-Linnaean herbaria have a growing value for botanists and historians of science. A unique example is a four volume herbarium from the early 18^th century preserved in the archives of the Herbarium of the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw. They consist of one, originally five volume set. We proved that the plants had been gathered by the famous naturalist Georg Andreas Helwing (1666-1748), and his son-in-law, Matthias Ernst Boretius (1694-1738), and they annotated and classified the exhibits. Boretius was born in Prussia, in Lec (now: Giżycko). He acquired his academic training in Königsberg and Leiden, and deepened it by scientific travels. He was the first in Masuria to promote vaccination against smallpox. Earning the reputation of a distinguished scholar, he was appointed Royal Physician and Crown Councilor of the Prussian court. He died in 1738 at the age of just 44, leaving the herbarium vivum – a magnificent remnant of his times. There are over 900 cards with glued specimen, signed in three languages: Latin, German and Polish. It includes vascular plants, liverworts, true mosses, clubmosses, algae and macrofungi. Boretius implemented the system made known by the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708). His system divided the plant world into 22 classes, based on flower morphology but also retaining the traditional split into trees, shrubs and forbs. The choice of this arrangement by Boretius was an innovation; the earlier plant collections of his tutor Helwing lacked any attempt to classify plant species.

Andinia panica, previously known exclusively from the type locality in Ecuador, is reported for the first time from Colombia. Characteristic of population found in Valle de Sibundoy is provided together with photographs of the specimen and information about its habitat. Moreover, the comparative morphology of species included in Andinia subgenus Minuscula, is presented together with the key to species identification.

During the last two decades of intensive botanical survey of the tropical dry evergreen forest, a total of 82 endemic taxa were found out of 1142 species enumerated from 85 sites in the three Coromandel Coastal districts of the state Tamil Nadu: Cuddalore, Kancheepurm and Villupuram, and in the Pondicherry district. Of 82 species, 17 are trees, 11 shrubs, 9 climbers and 45 herbs. Distribution of these endemic species was analyzed and categorised as endemic to the country, peninsular India, southern India, Eastern and Western Ghats, and at the state and district level. Interestingly, the study found that some endemic species were disjunctly distributed between districts, states, ghats, climatic regimes and bioregions. Anthropogenic disturbance and species threat status were also studied and discussed.

‘Jar rzeki Raduni’ is a landscape nature reserve created in 1972, which covers an area of 74,26 ha. The reserve protects the Radunia river gorge in the moraine upland of the Kashubian Lake District. In past, the reserve was an object of numerous botanical studies, and it was distinguished by a large share of mountain species. The main aim of this research was to define the current state of mountain species of the studied area compared to historical data. The study was carried out in 2017. Eight mountain species were noted: Aconitum variegatum, Alnus incana, Bupleurum longifolium, Chaerophyllum hirsutum, Dryopteris expansa, Huperzia selago, Pleurospermum austriacum and Ribes alpinum. The occurrence of five species was not confirmed: Coeloglossum viride, Epipogium aphyllum, Melampyrum sylvaticum, Polygonatum verticillatum and Valeriana sambucifolia.

The paper gives the results of studies on vegetation complexes of 12 islands and several skerries, situated within the inner part of SW Finnish archipelago. There were differentiated 14 types of complexes, comprising all types of communities (of vascular plants, mosses and lichens). All complexes are characterised by a repetitive combination of communities. Their distribution, showing distinct regularities in relation to geology, geomorphology and situation on an island, is depicted in the map.