History of the Annals of Dendrology
In 1924 the Polish Dendrology Society was brought into being in Lwów (Lvov; Ukraine nowadays) by a group of scientists, foresters, botanists and horticulturists including Julian Brunicki, Stanisław Dzieduszycki, Seweryn Krzemieniecki, Szymon Wierdak, Tadeusz Wilczyński and Antoni Wróblewski. Among the various activities of the Society since 1926 a Yearbook „Rocznik Polskiego Towarzystwa Dendrologicznego – Annuaire de la Société Dendrologique de Pologne” has been published, with Szymon Wierdak as editor-in.chief. The journal has appeared irregularly; de facto biennially. The irregularity was due to difficulties with funding the edition of successive volumes.
Up to the outbreak of World War II six yearbooks were issued, the last one in 1935. The seventh volume dated 1938 was planned for autumn 1939. However the printing houses in Lvov, occupied by the Soviet Army since the autumn months of 1939, were soon taken over by Soviet authorities and the whole edition was destroyed. It probably happened in the First Cooperative Printing House, in the Linde Street 4. The editor was only able to send the copies of papers to the authors; however nobody knew if the copies had been delivered to all the authors and who, apart from Roman Kobendza and Józef Mądalski, actually submitted the articles to the 7-th issue of the Yearbook.
In the pre-war years numerous valuable articles were published in the Yearbook, among them was a study on the variability of leaves in common and eastern beeches by Hanna Czeczottowa, the masterpiece of the Yearbook today regarded a classic; the description of the Gołuchów Park by Józef Goetz, two detailed descriptions of the Park in Kórnik, the first one by Konstanty Stecki and Witold Kulesza, and the second one by Antoni Wróblewski, and also a study on the mistletoe in Poland by Halina Karmazyńska.
After World War II in autumn 1948 the Polish Dendrology Society held a meeting in Kórnik and a year later in Tułowice. In the Stalin epoch the end of independent organizations was rapid and conclusive: it was the time of ”unification congresses” and ”centralization” in social life; therefore in 1951 the Polish Dendrology Society became the Dendrological Section of the Polish Botanical Society. In the same year the 7-th Yearbook was issued under the new title ”Rocznik Sekcji Dendrologicznej Polskiego Towarzystwa Botanicznego – Annales de la Section Dendrologique de la Société Botanique de Pologne”. Roman Kobendza replaced the late editor Szymon Wierdak. The editors of the reissued Yearbook were: Roman Kobendza (volumes 7-11); Tadeusz Gorczyński (12-32); Bogusław Molski (33-35); Jerzy Tumiłowicz (36-40); Mieczysław Czekalski (41-45); Władysław Danielewicz (46-52); recently Jakub Dolatowski has been appointed the new editor-in-chief.
In the post-war volumes numerous inventories of stands and
descriptions of parks were published owing to the professional activity and
enthusiasm of dendrologists (Kazimierz Browicz, Władysław Bugała, and Tadeusz
Szymanowski for exemple) as well as the intensive activity of the Dendrological
Section of the Polish Botanical Society. Profound studies such as those on
beech by Tadeusz Gorczyński, works on poplars by Władysław Bugała, studies
on horticultural taxonomy by Włodzimierz Seneta, studies on taxonomy and chorology
of trees and shrubs by Kazimierz Browicz were also published here.
From volume 8 onwards, beside the traditional French translation of the title
also a Russian translation appeared on the front page; from 1986, i.e. from
volume 34, the Polish title is accompanied by an English translation.