6 SKETCH OF THE 



elsewhere the fruit degenerates, becoming more and more inferior at 

 every remove from the parent stock. The Banda-tree is also much 

 longer-lived than the Nutmeg-tree of the Straits : one tree, brought 

 from Banda to Malacca, is supposed to be more than seventy years 

 old, and it still bears abundance of fruit : its nuts are perfect and uni- 

 form, quite different from the long and ill-shaped ones, which are seen 

 in the Straits. 



It is to be hoped that the Planters of the Straits will avail them- 

 selves of the liberality of the Netherlands Government, which concedes 

 to them the privilege of obtaining fresh seed. 



Sketch of the Life and Writings of M. de Martius, Secretary to the 

 Bavarian Academy of Science; hj Alphonse de Candolle. 



{Continued from vol. viii. p. 369.) 



But the work with which Martius has specially identified himself, 

 and which best displayed his taste and ability, and upon which he most 

 exclusively worked, and which he completed after twenty-eight years 3 

 labour, is the ■ Natural History of Palms. 5 This noble publication is 

 in three large folio volumes, which contain 245 plates, chiefly coloured, 

 some being landscapes, which exemplify the general aspect of the living 

 Palms. The noble growth of these trees, utterly different from, and 

 often far overtopping, their companions, had evidently captivated 

 Martius, as they did Linnaeus, who styled them the Princes of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom. Far from numerous is this aristocratic family : 

 it contains only 600 species; but in no part of the world is it more 

 amply represented than in Brazil, uor had it ever been so closely studied 

 as by our author. 



The c History of Palms ' is entirely written in Latin ; the style is 

 elegant and clear ; the subdivisions, tables, and figures materially faci- 

 litate research. The first volume treats of Palms in general, and com- 

 mences by Mold's chapter on their anatomy, whereon he founds excel- 

 lent remarks on the organization of Monocotyledons, which was little 

 known for want of good specimens. Moldenhauer and Desfontaines 

 had established certain points, but others were undefined. Martius 

 rendered a prodigious service to science by furnishing M. Mohl with 

 numerous fragments of various Palms, and consigning them to his in- 



