L. Hably szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 20. 1988 (Budapest, 1988)

Kováts, Dezső: In memoriam Viktor Greschik who was born 125 years ago (1862-1946)

by J. ROLL, the leading moss specialist at that time: Andreaea Greschikii, the current valid name being Andreaea nivalis Hook f. greschikii. The locus classicus is on the peak of "Jégvölgyi csucs" (Ladovy stit) in the High Tatras. His several collecting trips resulted in discovering lichens, fungi, mosses and flowering plant species which had been unknown in the High Tatras until that time. GRESCHIK's several publications appeared in Hungarian, German, French, English, Russian and American scientific journals. At the end of the 19th century GRESCHIK attended the congress of the Russian naturalists in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) upon the invitation of the Russian duke of Voroncov-Daskov. He became acquainted with him in the High Tatras during a botanical trip. In 1910 he was invited to participate in the East-Siberian natural history expedition. It was a great pity that he was bound to sick-bed because of his spreading ear trouble. He underwent an operation in Budapest. Upon the invitation of scientific societies he delivered lectures in Hamburg at the North-German Botanical Congress

. In Berlin he spoke about mushrooms and toadstools. According to his contemporaries he bequeathed a rich herbarium - mostly of material from Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union - and a library consisting of eight thousand volumes. This material together with his other local historical collections was called the "Greschik Museum" at that time. GRESCHIK donated his herbarium and his valuable library to the secondary school in Lőcse with the intention of the collection remaining in his native town. He bequeathed the duplicate materials of his collection to the episcopal teacher's training college in Szepeshely, to the Museum of the Carpathians in Poprad, to the Tatra Museum in Felka, to the Lutheran secondary school in Igló and to the Roman Catholic Elementary School in Késmárk. The largest pan of his herbarium can now be found in the Botanical Institute of the Komensky University and in the Biological Institute and Museum of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. Several hundred items from his collections can be found in the lichen-, fungus-, moss-, and flowering plant herbaria of the Botanical Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest as well. Most of this material originated from GRESCHIK's exsiccata appearing in three languages (Latin, Hungarian, German): Mycotheca-, Bryotheca-, Lichenotheca carpathica contineus lichenes lucusque cognitos in montibus Tatrae Magnae et in territorio scepusii crescentes - Leutschovie, J. Th. REISS 1894. GRESCHIK also wrote several local historical and ethnographical works, dealing with the history of "Upper Hungary - Zips", especially the interesting history of Lőcse and its relics of history of arts. He was the editor of the local newspaper "Szepesi Hirnök - Zipser Bote". In 1924 he retired from teaching but he continued his collecting trips to enlarge his herbarium. GRESCHIK died during botanical work on 11th August, 1946. Czechoslovakia keeps GRESCHIK's memory green by commemorating him in some articles. Some ethnographical relics from his collection are exhibited in Levoifa in the " Zipser Museum". According to his contemporaries V. GRESCHIK was a noble-minded, hard-working man with a creative mind, a person who was interested in, and doing several things. He was a genial person, a skilful raconteur with good humour. GRESCHIK belonged to those pioneers who studied Nature in their spare time and devoted financial means to 'studying scientific problems besides their main occupation. VIKTOR GRESCHIK had three sons, the eldest was Dr. JENŐ GRESCHIK, an ornithologist and anatomist, the second was Dr. ERNŐ GRESCHIK, a physician who studied American leaf bugs besides his work, and the youngest was ANDOR GRESCHIK, a chemist. The writer of this commemoration is V. GRESCHIK's great-grandson. A LIST OF VIKTOR GRESCHIK's PUBLICATIONS WITHOUT CLAIM FOR COMPLETENESS 1883: Über Zwergobst baumzucht. - Karpathen Post Nr. 12, Késmárk. Etwas über Mohnbau. - Karpathen Post Nr. 18, Késmárk. 1884: Koniferen welche den Winter in der Zips mit und ohne Decke aushalten. - Karpathen Post Nrs 6, 7, 8, Késmárk. Beitrag zur Moos- und Flechtenflora der Zips. - Zipser Bote Nrs 6, 7, 8, 9, Lőcse. 1885: Der Rötling (Lactarius deliciosus Fv. ) und seine Varietäten. - Karpathen Post Nr. 31, Késmárk.