Biography
Polish professor of botany interested in algae, slime moulds and the history of botany. Originally from Warsaw Józef Rostafiński studied abroad from 1869; first in Jena, then Halle (1870-1872) and later in Strasbourg. In the latter city he was a pupil of the H.A. de Bary school and here he was awarded his doctorate and named docent in 1875. During this period he published one of his most important botanical texts, a Polish flora with the title Florae Polonicae Prodromus (1972). As well as this he had published Sluzowce (Mycetozoa) Monographia (1874-1875), one of the first monographs of the slime moulds. Along with another publication on Myxomycete taxonomy, which he produced in 1873, this monograph led Rostafiński to become an important character in the history of mycology. He pioneered a classification system which forms the basis of the taxonomic system used today for this group. Rostafiński also published several important papers on different fern and algae taxa during his student years.
Named chair of botany at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in 1875, he did not actually assume the post until three years later. This is because he was also named head of the botanic garden, a position he accepted on the grounds that a new palm house and modern greenhouses be built in the garden. Concerned with the construction of these buildings for the first few years of his employment, Rostafiński commissioned a Viennese company to undertake the work and oversaw the project.
At the same time he continued with his botanical research and produced important accounts of the Laminariaceae. Working towards a monograph of this family the manuscripts were lost before its publication, but he was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Brussels for this work in 1877. This same year he worked alongside M. Cubitt Cooke to produce their The Myxomycetes of Great Britain.
From about 1880 his focus turned towards historical topics and over the following 20 years he produced 38 works on the history of Polish botany and medicine. Apart from a few algological papers and a monograph of the flagellate Hydrurus foetidus Vill., Rostafiński did not publish any scientific papers at this time. After 1900 he abandoned botany all together but continued to research historical and cultural topics and produced an important work on the conservation ethic entitled "Respect for the monuments of nature" (1912). As a teacher he himself played an important role in the history of botany in Poland, being the founder of the first real school of botany in Cracow. The genus Rostafinskia Speg. bears his name, and 16 different genera are accompanied by the specific epithet rostafinskii in his honour. Rostafiński was also a humanist.
Sources:
Z. Mirek, 1933, "Plant names formed in commemoration of botanists of the Cracow botanic garden", Polish Botanical Studies: Guidebook Series, 9: 95-111
W. Szafer, 1969, Concise History of Botany in Cracow Against the Background of Six Centuries of the Jagiellonian University
B. Wysokinska, 2007, "Unknown correspondence of Józef Rostafinski with Edouard Bornet on algae research (1875-1878)", Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki, 52(2): 137-153
Józef Tomasz Rostafinski (1850-1929), Historical Biographies of Mycologists, Mushroom the Journal:
http://www.mushroomthejournal.com/greatlakesdata/Authors/Rostafinsk922.html, accessed 25 October 2010.
