20 CARL FRIEDRICH PHILLIPP VON MARTIUS. 
required for their preparation induced him to attempt the more speedy - 
publieation of his treasures in a series of octavo volumes, without 
pictorial illustrations, but only two volumes were published, —one on | 
Grasses by Nees von Esenbeck, and the other on Cryptogams, by — . 
Martius and others ! 
n 1829, he legen the publication of his great work, the * Flora | 
Seasons in folio, and from that time it may be said that the 
work of his life has been the carrying on of this publication. He has — | 
obtained the assistance of many of the most distinguished botanists to 1 
undertake different families, and these have been published as prepared, 
irrespective of any systematic order in the separate monographs. In 
addition to the materials obtained by Martius, all Brazilian collections 
before and subsequent to his expedition have been, as far as possible, 
included in the ‘Flora,’ and as Brazil is strikingly rich in many 
Natural Orders, the various monographs are often nearly complete for 
the group in question. 
He began the distribution of his rich collections in 1837, in a series 
of fascicles under the title of ‘Herbarium Flore Brasiliensis. He printed 
an introduction to this publication i in the * Regensburg Flora, contain- 
ing much interesting information on the labours of ja predecessors, on 
the geographical distribution of vegetation in Brazil, and on the plan he © 
had followed in determining his plants, and forming his herbarium. 
Besides the purely systematic works in which he was engaged, he .- 
prepared a valuable history of all that was known, and that he had | 
himself ascertained of the medical properties of the plants of Brazil. 
This was published in 1843, under the title ‘Systema Materia | 4 
Medice Vegetabilis Brasiliensis.’ He classified his information under | 
the various properties for which the plants were useful, as Amylacea, 
Mucilaginosa, Saccharina, Acida, etc 4 
Von Martius early showed a MAC e for linguistic studies. His - 
correspondence with Nees von Esenbeck, his fellow-student, was carried — 
on in Latin, and his command of this language is exhibited by the - 
elegant and eloquent dissertations which are interspersed among the 
more formal descriptions of his systematic works. When in Brazil he - 
paid eonsiderable attention to the languages of the natives, and to other 
ethnographieal questions, and amongst his numerous avocations he. 
has published several works on these subjects, such as ‘Von dem. 
Rechtszustande unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens’ in 1832, ‘Das 
