Лујо Адамовић : (1864-1935)

Abstract

Dr Lujo Adamović was born on July 31, 1864, in Rovinj, where his father Vicko, a teacher, historian and writer from Dubrovnik was on a brief term of service. His father had been a pupil of Vuk Karadžić. With his father he went to Dubrovnik where he spent his childhood and went to school. He completed his higher education in Vienna and Belgrade, where he was a student of the last generation taught by Josif Pančić. In 1889 he went to Serbia where he served as high school teacher in Belgrade, Zaječar, Pirot, Vranje and Gornji Milanovac. He taught botany, geology, German and French. Lujo Adamović had a good mastery of the French, German and Italian languages, particularly of. German in which he wrote in an easy style. He was appointed professor of botany at the University of Belgrade where he taught until 1905. Between 1906 and 1914 he was Privatdocent at the University of Vienna, teaching biogeography. Political events in the Balkans induced him to move to Montenegro. The Montenegrin minister of education procured his permit to work in Montenegro where he served in the minsitry of education. Adamović had five children, three daughters and two sons who had been taken from Serbia to a prison camp in Hungary. He requested the education minister to grant him leave of absence in order to look for his children in the prison camps. With his permission he crossed again into Serbia where he remained until 1918. Alongside his professorial duties he acted as director of the Belgrade University's botanical gardens from 1901 to 1905, and again in 1915 and 1916. He was Austrian government's administrator of agriculture in Dalmatia. Upon the application of the latest criteria for the description of species, „bona fide" status of the species described by Lujo Adamovid was preserved in 13 species. A number of species (13) were categorized, according to these criteria, as subspecies and a number of species as varieties and forms. In honour of this great expert in plant systematization foreign scientists have named after him 5 plants.