MEMOIR OF C. F. P. VON MAETIUS. 



173 



For the rest, the professioual career of Martms is not marked by auy 

 striking: iucideuts. Lectures, literary labors, and the superintendence 

 of the botanical garden fully occupied his time, and his tsavels, after 

 the American voyage, extended not farther than France, Belgium, Hol- 

 land, England, and Switzerland. He used to spend his summer vaca- 

 tions in the pictm-esque Bavarian mountains, especially at Schlehdorf, 

 ou the Kochel-See, where his hospitable house formed a rallying-place 

 for his numerous friends, who remember with feelings of gratitude the 

 days passed there amid delightful natural scenes and in a highly intel- 

 lectual, refined society. Though of a vigorous constitution. Von Martins 

 was in later years subject to those chronic indispositions which usually 

 result from the sedentary habits of men of letters, and he found himself 

 therefore obliged to resort repeatedly to watering i>laces, esi)ecially to 

 the mineral springs of Kissingen. The salutary effect derived from the 

 use of these waters was in some measure counteracted by the bustle 

 and distractions peculiar to such localities ; for, meeting there distin- 

 guished friends, and being, moreover, naturallj' inclined to social life, 

 the mental excitement produced was rather unfavorable to the improve- 

 ment of his i)hysical condition. 



In the year 1854 an unexpected event caused the premature termina- 

 tion of Martins' official activity. It was decided by the government 

 that the glass building for the industrial exhibition then to be held at 

 Munich should be erected within the area of the botanical garden, 

 ■which had but lately undergone great improvements at a sacrifice of 

 much time and labor. It was in vain that Martins remonstrated against 

 a measure which threatened his beh)ved institution with serious disad- 

 vantages, and when he found his objections unavailing, he finally re- 

 signed, deeply disappointed, both his professorship and the superintend- 

 ence of the botanical garden. 



The literary activity of Professor Yon Martins was very great. The 

 writer has in his possession a printed list of his works and minor writ- 

 ings, which embraces no less than one hundred and sixty titles. A 

 number of these publication's are written in the Latin language, and 

 most of them, of course, relate to botany, his S])ecialty in science ; but 

 there are also valuable contributions to ethnology among them. In 

 treating of his merits as an author, it is proper to mention first the nar- 

 rative of the Brazilian voyage performed by him and Spix.* This is a 

 substantial and most carefully prepared work, in three quarto volumes, 

 accompanied by an atlas of large size. The volumes appeared respect- 

 ively in 1823, 1828, and 1831 ; Spix, however, died in 182G, and hence 

 the two last volumes were almost entirely written by Martins alone. 

 Every one who examines this work must be struck by the vast amount 

 of varied information it contains, for the travelers directed their atten- 

 tion not merely to the natural history of Brazil, but investigated also 

 with searching care everything else within their reach which they 

 deemed worthy of inquiry. The nature of the country, its productions, 

 different races, social condition, commerce, agriculture, mining, statis- 

 tics, »l^c., are treated with a surprising minuteness, and, where the sub- 

 ject is of an elevated character, in a superior style, which has repeatedly 



* Ecise in BrasUku, aitf Befchl Sr. llajestnt Maximilian Joseph I, Eiinigs von Baycrn, in 

 den Jahren 1817, 1818, 1819 und 1820 ficinaelit, uiid hcschrieben von J. B. von Sjiix und C. F. 

 Ph. von Martins. Three vols., 4to; Munich, 1823-81; ^yith au atlas. 



There is au English trauslatiou of the tirst volume by H. E. Lloyd; Loudon, 1824, 

 2 vols., 8vo.; plates reduced to the size of the volumes. 



