History of botany voyages to distant lands instigating another phase of encyclopaedic plant identification, nomenclature, description and illustration, "flower painting" possibly at its best in this period of history. Plant trophies from distant lands decorated the gardens of Europe's powerful and wealthy in a period of enthusiasm for natural history, especially botany (a preoccupation sometimes referred to as "botanophilia") that is never likely to recur. Often such exotic new plant imports (primarily from Turkey), when they first appeared in print in English, lacked common names in the language. During the 18th century botany was one of the few sciences considered appropriate for genteel
Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany The Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany (Instytut Botaniki im. Władysława Szafera, Polish) in Kraków, Poland is a major European herbarium containing a collection of over 650,000 vascular plants, bryophytes, algae, fungi, lichens, and various plant fossils. The vascular plant specimens are primarily from Central Europe with a specialization in alpine plants. The bryophytes are Polish, Antarctic and subAntarctic, and East African. The fossil plants are largely Central European. Main publications include "Acta Palaeobotanica", and the "Polish Botanical Journal". The herbarium was established in the 1950s by professor of botany and paleobotany, Władysław Szafer, at the