Florian Porcius

Born in Rodna, a village in Transylvania's Bistrița-Năsăud County, he came from a poor peasant family, and his parents were Precup Șteopan and his wife Ioana.

In 1844, Porcius he a scholarship from the Military Frontier fund allowing him to study at the Vienna pedagogical institute for two years;[1] while there, he audited courses on botany.

For over sixty years, he explored the Rodna Mountains, methodically studying their flora and discovering several endemic species, of which two bear his name.

A manuscript of his, kept in the Romanian Academy Library and titled Explicarea termenilor botanici, care se folosesc în opurile botanice la descrierea plantelor fanerogame și criptogame vasculare.

A Romanian variant appeared in 1881 as Diagnozele plantelor fanerogame și cryptogame vasculare, care provin spontaneu din Transilvania.