Lipskii, V.I.: Botanical Institutions and Gardens in Southern Europe and North Africa

Title

Botanicheskie uchrezhdeniia i sady v Iuzhnoi Evrope i Severnoi Afrike, Sankt-Peterburg 1904

Botanical Institutions and Gardens in Southern Europe and North Africa

Keywords

Summary

The book includes several maps and diagrams and is divided into five chapters, each focusing on a different region: Hungary, Italy, Sicily, North Africa, and France. The chapter on Africa (pp. 105-125) provides descriptions of the gardens in Tunis, the flora of the Sahara, and a garden in Algeria. The author recounts his journey from Palermo to Tunisia by steamship, expressing his eagerness to explore the region both for its natural environment and its archaeological sites, particularly the ruins of Carthage. However, his primary objective is to visit the Sahara and compare it to what he calls the “Russian Sahara”, referring to the Transcaspian region. Upon his arrival in Tunisia, the author visits the Jardin d’essais de Tunis and the Belvedere Garden, where he examines the local flora, including plants, herbs, and trees. After two days, he leaves the city to study the plants of the Sahara, particularly in the areas around El Kantara and Biskra. Here, he also examines the characteristics of the local sand, drawing comparisons with the sands of the Transcaspian region. The author’s third destination, Algeria, allows him to explore the Jardin d’Essais near Mustapha, located just outside Algiers. This expansive garden, which he maps out, fascinates him due to its variety of plants and trees. After completing his observations in Algeria, the author travels to Marseille by steamer.

Bio

Vladimir Lipskii graduated from the University of Kiev in 1887. His scientific work was significantly influenced by Johannes Schmalhausen, who was head of the Department of Systematics and Morphology of Plants at the university in those years. From 1887 to 1894, Lipskii held various positions at the botanical garden of Kiev University. Beginning in 1889, he participated in scientific expeditions to the Caucasus and Northern Iran. From 1894 to 1917, he worked at the Main Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg, where he became chief botanist and head of the Department of Plants. During these years, he also participated in scientific expeditions to the Caucasus, Altai, and Central Asia, focusing on the study of high-mountain flora in these regions. In 1917, Lipskii returned to Ukraine and played an active role in the establishment of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, chairing the Department of Botany and serving as the Academy’s President (1922-1928). From 1928 to 1933 he worked as director of the Botanical Garden in Odessa. In 1936, he made his last scientific expedition to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. His scientific work was focused on floristics, systematics, as well as the principles of botanical gardens’ organisation, and the history of botany. Lipskii made some of the first scientific descriptions of the flora of regions such as Indonesia, Tunisia, Algeria, and Central Asia. He described four new genera and 220 new plant species, authoring many scientific papers.

Sources

A. Barbarich, Volodimir Іpolitovich Lips’kii, Kiev 1958;

“Lipskii Vladimir Ippolitovich”, in Biologi: biograficheskii spravochnik, ed. by  T. Babii et al., Kiev 1984, p. 373-374.

M.E.

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