Caetano Xavier dos Remedios Furtado (14 October 1897 – 13 June 1980) was a botanist who specialized in palms. He worked at the Singapore botanical gardens. He described nearly 104 species of palms, worked on the African genus ''

Hyphaene ''Hyphaene'' is a genus of Arecaceae, palms native to Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ...

'' and on the family Araceae. The species ''

Maxburretia furtadoana ''Maxburretia'' is a genus of three rare species of palms found in southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. The genus is named in honor of Max Burret, (1883 – 1964) a German botanist.Barfod, A.S. & Dransfield, J. (2013). Flora of Thailand 1 ...

'' was named after him by John Dransfield in 1978. He was also involved in clarifying the terms "illegitimate" and "superfluous" names in taxonomic nomenclature. He also coined the word "basinym" which was modified as

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both botan ...

. Furtado was born in Douniar, Merces,

Portuguese Goa Old Goa ( Konkani: ; pt, Velha Goa, translation='Old Goa') is a historical site and city situated on the southern banks of the River Mandovi, within the Tiswadi ''taluka'' (''Ilhas'') of North Goa district, in the Indian state of Goa. The ci ...

, son of physician Jose Irneu das Augustias dos Remedios and Maria Eloisa Anacleta de Sousa and went to the Poona Agricultural College, receiving a B.Ag. in 1921. He then went to Burma as an agronomist and joined the

Singapore Botanic Gardens The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a -year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Th ...

in 1923. He received a D.Sc. from the

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

in 1939. He knew Portuguese and English from early on and studied Italian so as to be able to read the works of Beccari, as well as Spanish, French and German in order to read systematic literature. Apart from palm taxonomy, he also wrote on matter of systematics and also wrote extensively including some biographical notes on I.H. Burkill. Furtado's wife Ana Sebastiana da Piedade was from

Calangute Calangute is a town in the North Goa district of the Indian state of Goa. It is famous for its beach, the largest in North Goa and a popular tourist destination. The peak tourist season is during Christmas and New Year, and during the summer in ...

and they had 3 sons and 3 daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furtado, Caetano Xavier 1897 births 1980 deaths Scientists from Goa 20th-century Portuguese botanists