Josef Ritter von Rawicz Warszewicz ( 1812 - 1866 )

The name Warszewicz has long been associated with numerous showy orchids of Central America , many of which became well known to hybridizers . The collector for whom these plants were often named had many unique experiences ,and though funds were often named had many unique experiences ,and though funds were often named had many unique experiences ,and though funds were often insufficient , he made lengthy expeditions into tropical forests , collecting ,exploring ,and despatching his finds to the botanical gardens and herbaria of Germany and England .

Josef Ritter von Rawicz Warszewicz was born in Wilno, Lithuania (of Polish extraction) , in 1812. Little is revealed of his childhood , but he is known to have joined the staff of Jundzill'z Botanical Garden as a young man. He became embroiled in the first Polish revolution , however , and had to foresake his homeland .

In the years 1840-1844 he was employed as an assistant in the Botanical Garden at Berlin , where his industrious nature made him a highly capable gardener ; here his large herbarium was later deposited .

In 1845,the year Warszewicz finished his studies at the Botanical Garden ,Messr.Van Houtte,a horticulturalist of Ghent , Belgium ,advertised for a suitable man to accompany a Belgian colony to Guatemala in order to collect tropical plants and seeds for commercial sales purposes. Upon recommendation by a friend ,Warzewicz was hired for the assignement and left Ostend for Guratemala in December 1844. Almost immediately after his arrival in Central America the Van Houtte green houses began receiving consignments of tropical plants , mainly orchids.

In 1846 Warszewicz established himself in Guatemala as an independent collector , gathering seeds, living plants , and dried specimens which he sent to Europe. In the gardens of his friends and patrons Warszewicz cultivated the great quantities of plants which he had collected from the mountains of Guatemala and dispatched them wholesale to Europe. His success was such that brought a new era to German horticulture , being the first time that a man who was as industrious and intelligent as others who sent their collections only to England ,should make shipments directly to the various gardens in Germany .The gardens at Hamburg ,Berlin , Erfurt ,and the Botanical Garden in Zurich all received annual shipments of seeds , tubers , and bulbs . During all this time until the end of his travels , Warszewicz imported enormous quantities of orchids , end of his travels , Warszewicz imported enormous quantities of orchids, and the descriptions of a number of new species of this family which he introduced were published by H.G. Reichenbach in Bonplandia .

Warszewicz passed several years exploring and collecting in various parts of Central America . Almost without means and accompanied only by a single Indian , in 1848 he set out from Guatemala to undertake a great journey through Central America . There for long months he lived in Indian huts , subsisting on maize and fruit from the forest . Especially rich were his collections in Panama ,where he climbed the 16,000-foot Chiriqui Volcano. He discovered Cattleya dowiana in Costa Rica . Unfortunately ,the plants he was able to send to Van Houtte arrived in poor condition and perished in spite of the painstaking cultural efforts taken with them . Specimens later sent by a Mr. Acre arrived successfully and bloomed to perfection . In Colombia the following year, Warszewicz discovered and collected Cattleya warscewiczii.

In 1850 he returned to Europe after an attack of yellow fever . On his return to Cracow Dr. Czerwiakowski, of the botanical Garden of that city, offered him a position,but Warszewicz would not accept . Instead , he went to Berlin , where he met H.G. Reichenbach and assisted him for a while in his work, describing more than 300 orchid species . Unaccustomed to such sedentary work, however , in the beginning of 1851he embarked for South America . By the end of that year he was in Guayaquil , Ecuador , where he was robbed of money and equipment ,whereby he lost all that he had gained from his earlier journeys. From there he continued to Bolivia and Peru,spending some time in Lima in 1852. Each of his trips brought shipments of orchids, as well as many other plants of horticultural value, to botanical gardens in Cracow and Berlin . He discovered several new species of Gesneriaceae , and his Cann warscewicza became one of the most outstanding parents in the hybrid progeny of the genus.

The Horticultural Society of London offered to have him travel at their expense , but Warszewicz declined , for he wished to wander and continue his collecting without following a prescribed route or turning his collections over to a single organization ,preferring to distribute his material without restriction . At this time his importations were highly prized ,especially in Enland , and it was there that orchids he had collected brought prices as high as twenty-five pounds sterling per plant .

In Peru he followed the Maranon River ,again discovering a great number of new orchids which Professor Reichenbach described . A recurrence of yellow fever in 1853,however, once again compelled Warszewicz to leave his orchid-hunting grounds , and he returned to Cracow where Dr. Czerwiakowski offered him the post of supervisor of the Botanical Gardens. He accepted the position and retained it until , after a short illness, he died on 29 December 1866. His collections of dried specimens were bequeathed to the Berlin Botanic Garden.

Many orchids remain ot honor the name and memory of this great collector. Besides Cattleya warscewiczii, previously mentioned , he is commemorated in Cycnoches warscewiczii, Catasetum warscewiczii, Miltonia warscewiczii , Paphiopedilum Caudatum var. warszewicziananum , Sobralia warscewiczii, Brassia warscewiczii, Epidendrum warscewiczii, Mesospinidium warscewiczii, Epidendrum warscewiczii, Mesospinidium warscewiczii, Oncidium warscewiczii, Stanhopea warscewiczii, and the genus Warszewiczella .

There would seem to be a discrepancy between the spelling of his name -Warszewicz-and the specific names of plants honoring him. His own name is the correct spelling ,but the mistaken specific spellings remain by virtue of early nomenclature and publication.

References

Bonplandia . 1854. II Johrgang . No.8.

Gardener's Chronicle. 1867. No.9.

Ogrodnictwo. 1927. Numero consacre a la memoire de J. Warszewicz.Vol. 23, no.1.

Sampolinski ,Jerzy. 1963. Josef Warszewicz-A famous orchid collector . The Orch.Rev. 71,no. 840.

Standley , Paul . 1928. Flora of Panama Canal Zone . Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. Vo. 27.