Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis 6. (1969)

Szujkóné Lacza Júlia: Megemlékezés Andreánszky Gáborról (1895–1967)

introduction, Andreánszky expounds the principles applied in the establishing of the chronological sequence of floral evolvement, namely: 1. The disappearence of certain plant species and the appearance of others, resulting from the fluctuations of temperature, the lack of humidity saturation; 2. Floral and community evolvement, that is, coenogenesis ; 3. The initially Mediterranean climatic type transforming into one with uniform distribution of precipitation, 4. The numeric change of species in the Sarmathian age (showing a decreasing tendency). Based on the identification of leaves and applying the abover principles, Andreánszky exposed the flora of the several localities and the history of the Sarmathian vegetation. Important chapters of this work have been submitted by young paleontologists: his erstwhile students and now his colleagues. The international acclaim of the monograph was particularly expressed by German, Italian, Austrian, and Soviet workers. As the enricher of the Museum collection and augmenter, by his identifications, of its value, Andreánszky found a worthy associate in F. Legányi, the discoverer of numerous sites around Eger and a zealous collector of materials. Andreánszky extended his activities also to the continous identification and inventorizing, as well as the subsequent publishing, of the material deposited in the I. Dobó Museum, Eger, North Hungary. Indeed, in recent years he became a standing contributor to the Annals of the Museum in Eger, since the sites worked up lie in the majority around this city. Subsequent to the publication of the monograph on the Sarmathian flora, his interest turned almost completely to the working up of the paleobotanical finds from the Oligocène of these localities. Along with his papers on floristic data, his comprehensive treatise „On the Upper Oligocène Flora of Hungary: an Analysis of the site at the Wind Brickyard, Eger" was finished and also published in the Studia Biologica Hungarica in 198G, but his monumental plan, the writing of the entire Oligocène flora, was not to be realized —, his death prevented it. He worked to a lesser extent on the Helvetian and Tortonian floras, exposed in recent years especially during the excavations around the old castle in Eger. I have earlier shown G. Andreánszky and G. Cziffery the site at Parasa-puszta in the Mts. Börzsöny; the material was worked up by Cziffery, the locality discovered by forestry engineer P. Király. Thus Andreánszky contributed to the knowledge of the flora of the Tortonian sea coast for the area of also the Mts. Börzsöny. In Parasa-puszta, great numbers of the species of Cinnamomum, Lauras, and Populus have been discovered; in this composition, the flora refers to an evergreen, shrubby, coastal vegetation under the deciduous Populus trees. In recent years, Andreáruszky was preoccupied with the idea of recoinstructing the paleoclimate, since the history of flora and vegetation is invariably the reflection of sudden or gradual climatic changes on plant fossils. To the very end of his life, he perused all recent additions to literature, greatly facilitated by his adaptness in several foreign languages, For this very cause, he was able to assimilate the results of every new related branch of science, even though he had in later times refrained from applying new methods. In Hungarian paleobotany, Andreánszky was and is the classical gigant, whose greatest merits was his devotion to science, his unfailing diligence, and„ in every respect, his altruistic, friendly character. 13