L. Hably szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 19. 1986 (Budapest, 1986)
Szujkó-Lacza, Júlia; Debreczy, Zsolt: In memoriam Dr. Vera Csapody (1890-1985)
successful undertakings of the Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The illustrations of the 2nd volume, including 121 H miniature plant drawing were made by VKRA CSAPODY. The publishing company planned the edition of other identification series too. The second volume was published in 1953. The illustrations of crypt ogam ou s plants were far removed from her sphere of interest; only once she participated in such work, when she illustrated the book written by BOROS: "Magyarország mohái" [Moss Flora if Hungary], where all species known at that time from the area were depicted. The book written by JÁVORKA & CSAPODY entitled "Erdő mező virágai" [Flowers of woods and meadows] spoke not only to the students, but to the great masses of people too. This popular book, illustrated with Csapody-aquarelles was first published in 1950, had many further editions in Hungary and even in Slovak language. WHERE THE DETAILS ARE IMPORTANT The first attempt of CSAPODY to depict morphological concepts was in 1926, when she made drawings about different plant organs for the book of JÁVORKA: "A magyar flóra kis határozója" [Short identification Manual of the Hungarian Flora]. Such illustrations can also be found in the "Handbook of the Hungarian Flora" (1951 first volume). The "A növényszervtan terminológiája" [[Terminology of plant morphology] (1953) also belonged to the works of VERA CSAPODY. The first acquaintance with the medical plants originated from 1941 through GIOVANNINI* s "Útmutató gyógynövénygyüjtők részére" [A technical guide for collectors of medicinal herbs] (16 illustrations). For many years she had prepared the text part of the book "Magyar gyógynövények" [Hungarian medicinal herbs I —I T ] written by AUGUSTIN, JÁVORKA, GIOVANNINI & ROMVÁRI. The second volume (1948) with the subtitle "Coloured Plates", shows medicinal plants with the required accuracy. The third joint work (1958) of GIOVANNINI and CSAPODY was the illustrated book "Gyógynövényeink" [Our medicinal herbs] written by two excellent experts: GIOVANNINI & SZATMÁRY. VERA CSAPODY also took an active part in the enterprise "Magyarország kulturflórája" [The cultivated plants of Hungary] . That was a rather modern undertaking, to satisfy all demands, introducing all the cultivated species (in Hungarian). The latest joint work of JÁVORKA and CSAPODY was: "Garden flowers" (1962), which was published by the Agricultural Pub. Co. Nowadays it is a most wanted book. Her dendrological activity may be divided into three, rather distinct periods: The first period is marked by drawing for "Iconographia Florae Partis Austro-Orientalis Európáé Centralis", the elaboration of the indigenous flora with the drawing of the most common woody species that are native and almost belong to the flora. This period began in the 1920s and lasted till the beginning of the 1930s, or with the various revisions and plant identification handbooks, till the 1950s. The second period began in the 1950s, in partnership with SÁNDOR JÁVORKA, who turned towards popularization. With the colourful aquarelles and drawings this is the period of the expansive representation and popularization of botany. In the books produced in this period, representation of the dendroflora received a due place as a part of the indigenous and the cultivated plant life (flora). The third period began in 1971 and lasted till her death, is the systematized, pictured representation of the woody flora of the temperate zone of the world. In the Iconographia the tables are arranged according to a system, showing about 289 indigenous and 77 cultivated or "escaped" species, ranging over about 25 families and 60 genera.After the aquarelles and the dimensional illustrations of the plants, an unusual work began: "Jávorka did not allow shadowing and the use of fantasy. I was only to draw the exact outline of the herbarium plant which was considered to be specific. I almost had to steal secretly into my drawings the shadowing and the dimensional demonstration". That is how she remembered her drawings were made at that time. The drawings of the plant identification handbooks that were made parallel with or after the "Iconographia", reflect the principals of the Iconographia I. The volumes of JÁVORKA & CSAPODY (1926), SOÓ & JÁVORKA (1951) and other later edited plant identification handbooks were all made on the basis of these drawings. The popularizing period started when they had finished the revisions according to the geographical limits of the Carpathian Basin, and later the area delimited by the 1920 political borders. Using the plant identification handbooks, with some practice it became possible to identify most of the indigenous species (even without using the keys). JÁVORKA' s view was that even people who come from other walks of life should easily acquire knowledge about the plants. This is how the first edition of "Erdö-mezŐ virágai" [Flowers of
