Okruchy historii Polskiego Towarzystwa Dendrologicznego

Polish Dendrology Society was founded in Lvov in 1924 thanks to initiative of Dr. Szymon Wierdak, professor of forestry in the Lvov Technical University. Presidential work of Dr. Wierdak was supported by several friends and colleagues, including some other botanists and dendrologists from Lvov – Stefan Makowiecki, Tadeusz Wilczyński and Antoni Wróblewski. Pre-war activity of the Society was mostly focused on publishing “The Yearbook of the Polish Dendrology Society” (Rocznik Polskiego Towarzystwa Dendrologicznego). This journal, due to permanent lack of suitable number of papers and money for printing, not at all was published annually but rather unperiodically since in the years 1926-1935 only six volumes were issued. The seventh volume, already printed and ready to be bound, was totally destroyed yet in the printing-house by the Soviet occupants of Lvov in the fall of 1939. Before WWII, apart of the initial meeting in 1925, only one short, one-day long (June 6th, 1938) general meeting of PDS was held in Kórnik. In the same place some years earlier within the Foundation “Zakłady Kórnickie”, Ogrody Kórnickie (Kórnik Gardens) were created, and where the most important Polish dendrological collections of those days were kept. This institution under Antoni Wróblewski started numerous studies on the subject of dendrology. The conference coincided with the general meeting of the Polish Botanical Society. After WWII, in the years of the worst communistic dictate, the faith of the Society, which grouped many aristocrats, pre-war landlords and park owners or former university professors that were not keeping the official political line, was decided. The Society members managed to held only two more post-war meetings, one again in Kórnik in the fall of 1948, and the other a year later in Tułowice. Professor Władysław Szafer from Cracow, the most eminent Polish botanist of that time, was elected the president of the Society and Professor Roman Kobendza from Warsaw replaced Szymon Wierdak, who although survived the Soviet and Nazi occupation of Lvov, fell seriously ill, as an Editor of “The Yearbook”. Eventually the pressure of the communist governors of the Polish science made Professor Szafer to deactivate the Society. It was done, against the Society Code, on 10th September 1950 in Wrocław, during annual meeting of the Polish Botanical Society. In this sadly illegal way Polish Dendrology Society, incorporated into Polish Botanical Society, gave birth to its first section ever – Section of Dendrology of Polish Botanical Society. The first post-war issue of “The Yearbook of PDS”, i.e. its 7th volume, financially supported by the Ministry of Education, already printed, proofed, and ready to be bound, after the Wrocław meeting underwent “face-lifting” and was published with the new cover as an official journal of the Section of Dendrology of Polish Botanical Society. Polish Dendrology Society was reactivated in August 2009 in Wrocław, and the first president in this new era was elected Professor Jerzy Tumiłowicz from the Rogów Arboretum.