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The article presents reflection on the presence of the nineteenth-century convictions and visions of the past in the Polish post-war medieval studies practiced on the historical ground. The nineteenth century was the time when modern critical historiography started to be created. For practical reasons the article discusses only the field of history, without referring to other fields that also practice medieval studies. The author emphasizes numerous historiographic references to the nineteenth-century paradigms of perceiving the past. One of them was the paradigm of describing the “national” past. What is also signaled in this study are rather archaic manners of describing the past in the post-war period and the utilitarian character of some historical studies.

Live plants are often traded in winter or early spring when the number of pests is potentially low, in part because deciduous trees lack foliage. However, the pests that may be associated with traded dormant plant material are likely to be largely unknown. Pest risk assessments can only be performed for known pest species and it is therefore important to identify potential pests before they are moved to a new area. In addition, it is difficult to predict whether introduced pests, even if already well known, may shift host after their arrival. Several studies attempted to estimate the likelihood of host shifts using literature about known pest-host associations, but the number of pests in these studies was often limited and the data were unlikely collected in the same place and at the same time. To overcome these problems, we performed a global study which aimed at detecting potential insect pests and fungal pathogens on congeneric native and exotic woody plant species that belong to six studied tree genera. Sampling was done simultaneously in 33 countries around the world following a common sampling protocol. At each location, twenty 50 cm long, dormant twigs were collected from each tree species and kept in containers with water at room temperature. Emerged insects were collected and identified based on morphology and DNA barcoding of the mDNA COI region. Fungal DNA was extracted from pooled buds, twig parts and needles for species identification using a metabarcoding approach based on the rDNA ITS region. Here, we present preliminary results of this study and discuss them in the context of pest risk assessment.

Hybridization among species of A conitum effects their morphology and ecology. In this study the hybridization between the diploid 2n(2x) = 16 (A. lasiocarpum and A. variegatum) and tetraploid 2n(4x) = 32 (A. firmum) species was documented in the Tatra Mountains (Western Carpathians) in a small, local population in a semi-natural site. The hybrid species were: homoploid A. × pawlowskii (A. lasiocarpum × A. variegatum), and triploid A. × berdaui (A. firmum × A. variegatum, 2n(3x) = 24). Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) alleles formed two distinct haplotypes, one typical for the tetraploid and another for diploid lines, shared between the tetraploid, triploid and diploid groups, indicating introgressive hybridization. The presumed gene flow was from the tetraploid to diploid species via the triploid bridge. The only two specimens of A. × pawlowskii that harbored tetraploid (A. firmum) type cpDNA possessed bracteoles of A. firmum-type. The remaining introgressed (cpDNA and Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR)) specimens (A. variegatum) were morphologically pure, implying cryptic introgression. ISSR loci shared between the tetraploid A. firmum and diploid A. variegatum support the hypothesis of an ancient allopolyploid origin of A. firmum and the diploid species of A. variegatum-type as one of its parent.

The article constitutes a polemic with Marek Cetwiński’s interpretation of the translation of the phrase equus maculis, which appears in the chronicle of Wincenty Kadłubek. The author had previously proposed a translation to “a piebald horse,” which allowed to compare Kadłubek’s account of the legendary race for power in the pre‑Piast era with other instances of the presence of spotted, piebald animals in enthronement rites of the Slavic peoples. Marek Cetwiński considers this translation to be inadequate, arguing that equus maculis should be translated instead as “a foaming horse” — sweaty and tired after a long run. However, this kind of translation has no linguistic basis and results only from the desire to rationalize Kadłubek’s writing. The following article presents instances of the presence of the descriptor maculis in ancient and medieval Latin and discusses the meanings associated with the word by the authors of those texts. The author of the article cites examples from texts written by Vergil, Laurentius Rusius, Ekkehard, or Telonius, with the view of substantiating the thesis that in each of those cases, the term maculae refers to the natural spots on the animal’s skin and not to sweat or dirt.The term is often used in fixed expressions, but it never refers to a sweaty animal. Thus, thereis only one way to understand this term, used by the continuators and translators of Kadłubek a like — as the horse’s color.

Aconitum lasiocarpum (Rchb.) Gáyer and A. variegatum L. are forest species with overlapped geographical ranges in the Beskid Niski and Doły Jasielsko-Sanockie Depression (W. Carpathians). They form here a hybrid zone. The cytogenetic evidences based on the Giemsa C-banding in A. variegatum showed the same cytotype in the Silesian Upland and the Moravskoslezské Beskids, pointing to the role of the Moravian Gate in the migrations of plants from the Moravian glacial forest refugium. Another linked the Małopolska Upland (Ojców) with the two Carpathian regions, including the Pieniny Mts. The result points to the two hypothesis. Firstly, there existed glacial forest cryptic refugia in both regions, or the Małopolska’s population is secondary in relation to the Pieniny Mts. ISSR analysis of A. moldavicum showed relationships between one of the Małopolska’s population and the Podolian populations. The Holocene migrations of the species from the Beskid Niski to the Małopolska region were also probable. The refugial character of the Pieniny Mts. was corroborated by their close relation to the relictual populations of A. moldavicum Hacq. from the Nizke Tatry.

The aim of the paper was to test the hypotheses on the genetic structure and origins of forest herbaceous plant species, Galium schultesii and Stellaria holostea, in the subalpine zone of the Bieszczady Mts. The species are generally the lowland elements occurred in fertile oak-hornbeam forests. Their extrazonal occurrence in the mountain subalpine zone could be an effect of recent, Holocene migrations from various glacial refugia or the surviving in situ the last glacial maximum (LGM) in cryptic forest refugia. The two hypotheses were tested with the use of AFLP genetic fingerprinting and the patterns of bands distribution were established based on General Linear Models (GLMs) and STRUCTURE analysis. Twenty nine populations of G. schultesii and thirty five population of S. holostea were sampled in the Carpathians, Transcarpathia, Pannonian Basin, Transilvania and Podolia. They were characterized by 200 and 219 AFLP loci, respectively. The Bieszczady’s populations of both species, as a geographical group, were not divergent from the adjoining regions (Analysis of Molecular Variance AMOVA, p > 0.05). In G. schultesii a group of AFLP bands in three populations from the Bieszczady Mts. were found in Transcarpathia and the Piatra Craiului Mts (E Carpathians). In S. holostea a group of AFLP bands were found in four of the Bieszczady’s populations, in the Eastern Romanian Carpathians (the Maramaros and Kelemen Mts.), and the Sandomierz Basin (Niepołomice Forest, north of W Carpathians). Both groups could have reflected a refugial pattern. The putative refugial vs. non-refugial groups had statistically significant between group variation (AMOVA) for both G. shultesii (4,8%, p = 0.006) and S. holostea (11,2%, p < 0.001). Statistical analysis showed that putative refugial group of S. holostea had statistically significantly lower indices of genetic richness FA (p = 0.03) and FAmax (p = 0.01), and higher divergence DW index (p = 0.002), in comparison to the non-refugial group. It could be an effect of the genetic bottleneck. Galium schultesii had significantly higher indices of genetic diversity: PPL (p = 0.008), Nei’s h (p = 0.037), Shannon I (p < 0.001), and divergence DW index (p = 0.007) in the putative refugial group. Probably both forest herbs could have persisted the LGM in the Bieszczady Mts.

Recenzja: Stanisław Rosik: Bolesław Krzywousty. Wrocław, Wydawnictwo Chronicon, 2013, ss. 339