CARL FRIEDRICH PHILLIPP VON MARTIUS. 17 
on all the islands at the mouth of the Canton River, a maritime 
atmosphere would appear absolutely essential to its existence; for I 
have never met with it along the banks of the river, nor indeed any- 
where, except near the sea. This agrees well with Roxburgh's state- 
ment, that “it is a native of dry, barren ground, particularly near the 
sea." 
As there is certainly but one Phenix indigenous to Southern China, 
it is probable that Vachell's specimens, referred by Hooker and Arnott * 
to P. dactylifera, belong to this species. 
Partly at the request of M. Naudin, made at a time when the species 
was undetermined, I have transmitted fresh seeds to him and a few 
friends in Europe, with a view to essay its introduction in the neigh- 
bourhood of Nice, and at Hyéres, where there seems little reason to 
doubt it would grow readily, sud dio. 
^ British Vice- Consulate, Whampoa, 
October 28, 1868. 
CARL FRIEDRICH PHILLIPP VON MARTIUS. 
This great botanist, distinguished traveller, and most illustrious 
mau died on the 13th of December, 1868, at Mun 
He was born at Erlangen, on the 17th of April, pm His father, 
Ernest Wilhelm Martius, who died at an advanced age in 1849, was, 
with Hoppe, one of the founders of Ratisbon Botanical Society, and 
author of a natural history ‘Journey in Franconia and Thuringia,’ 
and of the ‘Memories of a Ninety Years’ Life,’ containing many in- 
teresting pictures of social life in Germany during the period embraced 
in it. 
Carl Martius pursued his natural history studies in Erlangen, under 
the direction of his father and his father’s friends. He was the 
botanical pupil of Schreber, the disciple of Linnæus, and editor of the 
eighth edition of the * Genera Plantarum, and to him he was un- 
doubtedly indebted for the careful training in the fundamental prin- 
ciples of that science to which he was to devote his life, and which by 
his labours he was greatly to advance. But his studies were very 
* Bot. Beechey's Voy. 219. 
VOL. VII. [JANUARY 1, 1869.] c 
