Juan Ignacio Molina

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Juan Ignacio Molina (June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean priest and naturalist.

Molina was born at Guaraculén a big farm located near Villa Alegre, in the current province of Linares, in the Maule Region of Chile. His parents were Agustín Molina and Francisca González Bruna.

He was educated at Talca and the Jesuit College at Concepción. He was forced to leave Chile in 1768 when the Jesuits were expelled. He settled in Bologna and became professor of natural sciences there. He wrote Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Chile (1782), which was the first account of the natural history of that country, and described many species to science for the first time.

He is usually referred to as Abate Molina (form of Abbott Molina), and is also sometimes known by the Italian form of his name, Giovanni Ignazio Molina. Ruit and Pavon dedicated him Molina, later considered a subgenus of Baccharis by Heering (Reiche 1902), and recently F. H. Hellwig recreated a Neomolina and ranked as genus. Other authors dedicated Moliniopsis, a genus of Gramineae, as synonym of Molinia Schrank nom.illeg.

[edit] References

• Reiche K. F. 1902. Estudios críticos sobre la flora de Chile Anal Univ Chile 111: 153-183.

• Hellwig HF 1993. Candollea 48:212