S. B. Gorski’s Bryological Collection in the Herbarium of Vilnius University

Abstract

Stanisław Batys Gorski (1802–1864) was a pharmacist, botanist, and entomologist. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, he headed the Vilnius University Botanical Garden and lectured on botany at the Imperial University of Vilnius and the Vilnius Medical and Surgical Academy. It is a known fact that the Herbarium of Vilnius University (WI) contains Gorski’s largest collection of vascular plants. In 2016, the nineteenth-century collection of bryophytes in WI was analyzed. The analysis of handwriting on specimen labels, as well as their style, showed that more than half of the collection had been compiled by Gorski. The purpose of this study is to present Gorski’s reassembled bryological collection, which contains 729 specimens of bryophytes and is stored in the Herbarium of Vilnius University.

Keywords

• bryophytes
• mosses
• liverworts
• nineteenth century
• herbarium specimens