A number of articles, studies and extensive monographs have been written about Josif Pancic, one of the most distinguished European botanists of the last century. Last year, his collected works, consisting of 12 books, were published, in Serbian (the Publishing House for Textbooks and Teaching Aids, Belgrade). However, this is a short virtual presentation in pictures and words of his life road, his scientific and educational work and a host of new plants which Pancic, in addition to famous Serbian spruce, reported to global science.
In addition to these, more or less known matters, this time our and global public will get to know in details Pancic’s most significant legacy, i.e. his herbarium that seems to contribute more to his grandeur than do his written works and description of his new species. Herbarium Pancicianum presents per se the subject matter of significant scientific researches and a field of new discoveries. Besides, it is a collection offering to botanical science not only many taxonomic and systematic solutions but also an insight into the state of plant life in this part of Europe in the past, warning us of dangers that might cause the disappearance of this wonderful world in the future.
This presentation is intended to both "common" users of the Internet - who use this means of communication not only to learn something new but also to broaden their knowledge in easier and quicker way – and to the global botanical public. It is not conceived as publication incorporating its authors’ definite scientific judgements on the status of Pancic's taxa and the importance of his work. It is devised -111 years after the death of the giant of our natural sciences - as an attempt to establish, through Josif Pancic and his herbarium legacy, more lively and more fruitful communication between European and Serbian botanical botanists.
Besides, this presentation is intended to be a stimulus to all admirers of their great ancestors to form similar sites, enabling in that way that interested people from all over the world get to know the works of the most renowned scientists representing solid foundations of global botanical science.
Moreover, we believe that this presentation successfully promotes the idea about "electrotypes". Nowadays one can find worldwide - on computers of botanical institutions and personal computers - a host of quality electronic images. These "virtual electronic types" seem to preserve the identity of the species better than all measures of precautions their true type specimens in herbarium collections are subjected to.