Apr 2015
Issue: Volume 42, Number 1
In
1883, Polish botanist Józef Rostafiński distributed a questionnaire to
Poles with knowledge of peasant culture. Rostafiński asked about the
names and uses of about 130 various plants, both wild and cultivated.
About 370 individuals took part in the survey, sending nearly 860
letters. Only 359, sent by 227 correspondents, are now stored at the
Museum of the Jagiellonian University Botanical Garden (Kraków, Poland).
These letters contain nearly 25,800 records. Despite obtaining a vast
amount of information from his enquiry, Rostafiński never made full use
of the data. Rostafiński's questionnaire occupies quite an early
position in the history of ethnobotany. It was the most significant one
at that time in regard of its size, issues included in the questions and
the obtained results.
