Benedetto Scortechini


Benedetto Scortechini was an Italian botanist, explorer, and Roman Catholic priest.

Biography

He graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome as a priest and a lawyer. Accompanied by the priest Jerome Davadi and one other Italian priest, Scortechini arrived in Brisbane on 28 February 1871. The three Italian priests were brought, shortly after the end of the First Vatican Council, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane by James [Quinn (bishop)|Bishop James Quinn], the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Brisbane. After briefly working in Stanhope, Victoria and in Roma, Queensland, Scortechini was stationed in Gympie, Queensland from 1873 to 1875. In 1875 he was appointed the pastor of Logan Parish within the County of Ward, Queensland, where he remained the pastor for nine years until he left Australia in 1884.
George King, Director of the w:Acharya [Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden|Royal Botanic Garden Calcutta], arranged with Sir Hugh Low, the British Resident at Perak, to employ plant collectors to work in Peninsular Malaysia. As part of this programme, King and Low recruited Hermann H. Kunstler and Scortechini. Botanical specimens were sent to George King in Calcutta with duplicates sent to Kew Gardens.
Upon his death, Scortechini's collections were given to the Calcutta herbarium.

Eponyms

Genus

Scortechinia Sacc. Neoscortechinia Pax

Species

Filetia scortechinii C.B.ClarkeCyathocalyx scortechinii J.SinclairGoniothalamus scortechinii Melodorum scortechinii Finet & Gagnep.Hoya scortechinii King & GambleSchefflera scortechinii R.Vig. synonym for Heptapleurum hullettii R. VigEleiodoxa scortechinii Burret synonym for Eleiodoxa confertaSecamone scortechinii Klack.Caesalpinia scortechinii HattinkArgyreia scortechinii Prain ex HooglandDidymocarpus scortechinii B.L.Burtt synonym of Henckelia scortechinii A.WeberBaratranthus scortechinii Tiegh. synonym of Baranthus axanthus Miq.Stenanthemum scortechinii Maiden & Betche synonym of Spyridium scortechiniiCarinta scortechinii Thoth. synonym of Geophila scortechiniiTernstroemia scortechinii Szyszył.Tetrastigma scortechinii Gagnep.

Selected publications

  • . 1881.
  • . 1885.
  • ,,. 1888. Mycetes Malacenses: funghi della penisola di Malacca raccolti nel 1885 dall'ab. Benedetto Scortechini. Editor Tip. Antonelli, 42 pp.