Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Betche, Ern(e)st (sometimes Betcke or Betke)

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

 

Born: 1851, Potsdam near Berlin, Germany. Died: 1913, Sydney, Australia.

 

career:

Horticulturist with practice at Berlin and Ghent; in 1880 he made a trip to the Samoa Islands;1 he went to Sydney in 1881, where he was employed as collector of the Nat. Museum till 1897, and afterwards as Botanical Assistant of the same institution. In spite of his weak health he was a zealous investigator of the Australian flora.

He is the author of a paper on the Marshall Islands,2 and together with J.H. Maiden of publications on Australian plants.

The genus Betchea Schltr. was named after him.

 

Collecting localities:

1883. Bismarck Archipelago: Mioko, New Britain, and Duke of York Island.

 

collections:

His collection from the Samoa Islands from 1880 came into the hands of F. von Mueller, Melbourne; it was, however, only partially worked up by the latter;3 the orchids of the Bismarck Archipelago were transmitted by F. von Mueller to F. Kränzlin4 and the Acanthaceae to G. Lindau.5 The collections since 1881 in Herb. Sydney [NSW]; in Herb. Berl. [B]: 195 nos from E. Australia (pres. by his wife in 1918/19).

 

literature:

(1) E. Betche: ‘Vegetations-Character der Samoa Inseln, nach eigenen Beobachtungen zusammengestellt’ (Monatschr. Ver. Gartenb. Preuss. Staat. 24, 1881, p. 28-31, 74-77) (non vidi).

(2) ‘Vegetationsskizze der Marshalls-Inseln’ (Wittmack’s Gartenzeitung 3, 1884, p. 133-134).

(3) e.g. in Wing’s Southern Sci. Rec. 2, 1882, p. 95-97.

(4) cf. Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. Wien 44, 1894, p. 337.

(5) cf. Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 19, 1894, Beibl. 48, p. 3-5.

 

biographical data:

Legisl. Assembl. N.S.W. Rep. Bot. Gard. & Domains for 1913, p. 14-15; Journ. & Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W. 55, 1921, p. 153 + portr. (pl. 9); in Biogr. Index Britten & Boulger, 2nd ed. by Rendle, 1931.