170 MEMOIR OF C. F. P. VOX MARTIUS. 



of other professors of the university, such as Hildebrandt, Harless, 

 Goklfuss, Vogel, Wendt, and others who flourished at that period. In 

 1814 Martins received the diphiina of doctor onedicinw, having ])assed 

 with honors the examination necessary to obtain that grade. His in- 

 augural dissertation was a critical catalogue of the plants in the botan- 

 ical garden of Erlangen.* In this first literary attempt, which forms an 

 octavo volume of 210 pages, he followed the classification of Linnaeus. 

 Shortly afterward we find Martins among the elcves of the Eoyal Acade- 

 my of Sciences at Munich, deeply engaged in botanical studies, and 

 appointed assistant to Schrank, the conservator of the botanical garden. 

 An excellent opportunity being thus offered to the young botanist of 

 enlarging the knowledge already acquired, he devoted himself with en- 

 thusiastic zeal to a pursnit that harmonized so well with his taste. 

 While in this jjosition he published his Flora Gryptogamka UrJiwgcnsis, 

 {Norimhcrgoij 1^11 j) a work already begun at Erlangen, which embraced 

 his first independent investigations, and attracted by its merits consid- 

 erable attention from competent botanists. His superior talents, com- 

 bined with an indefatigable industry and excellent personal qualities, 

 could not fail to endear him to the older members of the Academy, men 

 eminent in their special departments of science, who exerted a most bene- 

 ficial and lasting influence on his mind. Indeed, he was placed in an 

 enviable j)osition ; fortune smiled on him and smoothed his i^ath to dis- 

 tinction. One circumstance, however, must be particularly mentioned 

 in this place ; for it is that on w liich his future success in life chiefly 

 depended. The King of Bavaria, Max Joseph I, an ardent lover of 

 botany, frequently visited the botanical garden of his capital, on which 

 occasions he usuallj^ selected Martins for his companion and guide. 

 Thus becoming acquainted with the young naturalist's acquirements 

 and talents, he honored him with his special favor, and seized upon 

 the first opportunity of showing his good will in a practical manner. 

 This excellent monarch had for some time conceived the plan of sending 

 scientific explorers to South America, and in 1815 he had already con- 

 ferred with the Academy in relation to this matter ; yet two years 

 elapsed before the realization of his design. In 1817, when the Austrian 

 Archduchess Leopoldina, the bride of the crown-prince of Brazil, after- 

 ward Emperor Dom Pedro I, was about to depart for the New World, 

 Metternich caused some Austrian savants, charged with scientific labors 

 in Brazil, to be added to the suite of the iirincess. The Bavarian gov- 

 ernment, wishing to profit by this occasion, asked, and was granted, 

 permission to send in the same vessel two naturalists, who, upon their 

 arrival in South America, were to carry on their investigations inde- 

 pendently of the Austrian corps. For this purpose Max Joseph selected 

 as botanist his gifted protege Martins, then a young man of twenty- 

 three, and Johann Baptist von Spix, a member of the Academy, who 

 was to take charge of the zoological department. On the 2d of April, 

 1817, the party left the harbor of Trieste in the Austrian frigaf e Austria, 

 and touching at Malta, Gibraltar and Madeira, reached Eio Janeiro, 

 after a prosperous ^'oyage, in the middle of July. One may easily 

 imagine the feelings of the two travelers, especiall}^ of the youthful and 

 enthusiastic Martius, when they stood upon the soil of the wonderful 

 country that lay before them with all its treasures of nature — the very 

 El Dorado of a naturalist, then far less explored than at the present 

 time, and promising the richest harvest in every field of natural science. 

 On the 8th of December, 1817, the two Bavarian savants set out on 

 their exijedition into the interior. Having first visited the province of 



* Plantarum Horti Academici Erlangensis Enumeratio. Erlanga, 1814. 



