LIFE AND WRITINGS OF M. DE MAKTIUS. 365 



coverieSi coDdensed in Mr. Robert Brown's ' Prodromus Florae Novse- 

 Hollandise/ had excited the greatest attention among naturalists ; but 

 an intercepting barrier now arose, and America was become like an 

 Atlantis, or like an antediluvian world, only known by scattered frag- 

 ments. Peace was the grand desideratum^ and when it was granted, 

 M. de Martins stepped forward as the second discoverer of the Kew 

 World's vegetation. 



The King of Bavaria, Maximilian the First, often walked as a private 

 amateur in the Munich Botanic Garden, where he observed young De 

 Martius, who performed the functions of Director, determining the 

 plants and superintending the workmen, tasks which Dr. Schrank's 

 great age no longer allowed him to do. The Monarch had seen the 



•m 



marvellous vegetation of the Spanish Colonies, and took great interest 

 in plants ; and when, shortly after, the Congress of Vienna arranged 

 the marriage of an Austrian Princess to the Emperor of Brazil, and the 

 Austrian Government contemplated sending a committee of savans with 

 the embassy, and Maximilian proposed to appoint two Bavarian natu- 

 ralists, Spix as zoologist and Martius as botanist, gladly did the latter 

 accede. The arrangements were promptly made. A young monarch's 

 desire to receive his bride forbade all lingering delay : a few weeks 

 settled the affair, and our naturalists, who accepted the proffered em- 

 ployment in February, 1817, had embarked on the 10th of April at 

 Trieste, in the Austrian frigate which bore away the future Empress. 

 It might have been well that books and scientific apparatus were more 

 amply provided, and then the transition from the chilly plains of Ba- 

 varia to the glowing mountains of Kio Janeiro, covered with virgin 

 forests, and rich in tropical Orchidem^ must have made all the more 

 powerful impression upon youthful and unprepared minds. What a 

 contrast, from humble Mosses and dingy Lichens to glorious and stately 

 Palms ! We owe much to the memory of the King, who had found 

 an observer so worthy to comprehend and so competent to describe the 

 beauty and magnificence of Brazilian vegetation. 



The plan of the expedition was traced by the Bavarian Academy. 

 It was in accordance with the amount of their knowledge of South 

 America. Hardly a naturalist had visited that vast region since Pison 

 and Marcgraf: its interior was almost untrodden; consequently the 

 idea was to send the travellers over the greatest possible range of coun- 

 try, superficially of course ; whereas now a directly opposite plan would 



