L. Hably szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 19. 1986 (Budapest, 1986)

Szujkó-Lacza, Júlia; Debreczy, Zsolt: In memoriam Dr. Vera Csapody (1890-1985)

asked CSAPODY whether she would be willing to draw plants for the Botanical Department of the Museum. At that time JÁVORKA was working on the "Flora Hungarica" and he was looking for an illustrator. This book was published in 1925 by the Studium publishing association, decorated with VERA CSAPODY'

s illustrations. But their most important joint work, the "A magyar flóra képekben" Iconographia Florae Hungaricae [An illustrated flora of Hungary] was published in parts, in several fascicles in the edition of "Studium" and the Society of Natural Sciences (1929-1934). From the works in the collection of the Botanical Department (of the Hungarian Natural History Museum) the aquarelle about Lilium Martagon L. is one of her earlier paintings about 1920. In 1921 she met SÁNDOR JÁVORKA; in the same year another illustration of a Tili a platyphyllos was painted

. In the "Iconographia" already we enjoy the very economical arrangement of numerous species without any disadvantage to the content of the illustration. In some difficult cases JÁVORKA first made sketches, planning the arrangement on the sheets. The illustration in perspective was always one of the lasting technical problems of CSAPODY. She was not an experimental illustrator. Her style took shape very early and assumed a rather characteristic form. This "peculiarity" could be one of the reasons for her productivity. During her life she made about 6000 drawings, 11.000 original aquarelles, and 1500 copies of drawings or aquarelles. The quick developement of her illustrational style was evidently strictly connected with her close co-operation with SÁNDOR JÁVORKA. In addition to the fascicules of the "Iconographia" another book was prepared: "Kis növényhatározó" C Short identification manual of plants], where new requirements were laid down. Beside the accurate and complete illustrations of the plants (with the exception of the arboreal species) the illustrations had to show details which were mentioned as important characteristics in the identification manuel. So the authors first had to agree on the proportion of the emphasized details, and in the placing of the drawings and details. Most of CSAPODY'

s aquarelles (namely 9864) are deposited in the Botanical Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. The black and white illustrations of "Iconographia" can also be found here. Our "Vera" always held in high esteem her relationship with the Botanical Department, all of her important works were presented to the Museum. ILLUSTRATIONS FOR GENERATIONS "The main work of my life was the aquarelling of native and cultivated plants living in the Carpathian-basin, from living examples. The time spent on my collecting trips, was taken away from my holiday, and the cost of these trips were also covered by myself, the result of the collectional and illustrational work made from 1912 is reflected in 4800 aquarelle-sheets, representing 3150 plants." - she wrote in her autobiography in 1950. In 1950 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences asked V. CSAPODY to take part in the accomplishment of the planned task aimed at "picturing of the country's flora and fauna in photos and aquarelles". Preceeding the first fascicules of the "Iconographia" another work was published in 1926 by the co-authors JAVORKA and CSAPODY "A magyar flóra kis határozója" [Short identification Manual of the Hungarian Flora] . Many excursions of numerous student-generations became more enjoyable with the help of this book, and many enthusiasts and scholars have been won for botany, who originally have come from other walks of life. The same illustrated book was published again in 1937 in an enlarged edition. The latest, revised 15th edition of the SIMON and CSAPODY "Kis növényhatározó" CShort identification manual of plantsj is nowadays the teaching book of the secondary school student. CSAPODY also illustrated the book of A. O. HORVÁTH on the common flower rarities of the Mecsek and the Transdanubian Central Mts.published in 1973 with 24 drawings.His other small monograph "A Mecsek hegység és déli síkjának növényzete" [The Flora of the Mecsek mountains and the plain in the south] was also illustrated with 3 coloured and 12 black and white illustration plates by VERA CSAPODY. After the Second World War the need arose for a new plant identification book for botanists, agriculturists and university students. SOÓ and JÁVORKA: "A magyar növényvilág kézikönyve t—

TT." [The Handbook of the Hungarian Flora I-II1 was published in 1951, and it was one of the first