322 I'HILUSOPHICAL THANSACTIONS. [aNNO I72g. 



designed after tlie lite, and with great aceuracy and success painted in their 

 proper colours. This curious invention was never more aptly applied, thouo-h 



to his Dis.svrtutwns on tht .Eneids of Virgil, printed in 1700, IJmo. and drawn up by his most 

 respectable son, and successor in the professorship; with whose friendship and correspondence, I 

 have on this occasion a sincere pleasure in acknowledging, I have long been honoured. Hence I 

 sliall brieU) recite from these anecdotes, only the leading circumstances in the life of Dr. Martyn, 

 as connected with his professional character; and conclude with a short account of his botanical 

 wTitings." 



" John Martyn was born in the city of London, Sept. 12, i699j and was designed by his father 

 for the profession of a merchant; but his early and strong propensity to learning and science, in the 

 end over-ruled that design. He had from his youth an attachment to botany; and this taste was 

 further excited by his acquaintance with Mr. Wilmer, afterwards demonstrator at Chelsea Garden; 

 and confirmed by an intimacy with, and the countenance of Dr. Sherard, in the year 1719. In the 

 year 1720, he translated from the French, Dr. Tournefort's Histori/ of the Plants growing about 

 Paris; and having projected a like catalogue of the plants about London, he collected, with un- 

 wearied diligence, the native plants of tlie environs ; making for this purpose sometimes very exten- 

 sive excursions, and almost ever on foot. He had once conceived a method from the seed-leaves, 

 and had sown a great number of seeds in order to observe the ditierence between them. He early 

 became acquainted with Dillenius, and co-operated with him in forming a society of botanists, which 

 consisted of seventeen members. This society kept togetlier till the year 1726. He continued, 

 during the years 1723 and 1724', to make his excursions in search of plants more frequent, and ex- 

 tended them farther, into Middlesex, Surrey, Essex, and Kent. At the same time he studied 

 insects, continued his observations on the seed-leaves, and made many others on the sexes of plants. 

 He had, several years before this time, translated from the Latin, an Ode on that subject, presented 

 to Camerarius, and printed in that author's epistle Dc Sexii Plantariim. The translation may be seen 

 in Blair's Botanic Essays." 



" In tlie summer of 1724 he travelled into Wales, by Bath and Bristol, returning by Hereford, 

 Worcester, and Oxford; by which he extended the objects of his studies, and augmented his col- 

 lection of English plants; insomuch, that at length it comprehended 1400 .specimens." 



" In 1725 and 1726 he read lectures in botany in London, and was recommended by Dr. Sherard 

 and Sir Hans Sloane, to exercise the same function at Cambridge, where, on the death of Mr. Bradiy, 

 he was chosen Professor of Botany ; and continued to give lectures for several years, until the want 

 of a garden, and his long absence from the business of physic, which he had engaged in, rendered 

 it incommodious to him." 



" In 1727, Dr. Martyn was admitted a member of the Royal Society; and was so active in the 

 Committee for regulating the Library and Museum, in 1731, that he had his bond for annual pay 

 ment cancelled by an order of council, as an acknowledgment of his services." 



" In 1730, he was admitted of Emanuel College, with an intention to have proceeded regularly 

 with the degrees in physic; but his marriage, and his attention to the practice of the profession, 

 prevented him from tiiiishing his design. In the mean time he read lectures in Botany and the Ma- 

 teria Medica, both at Cambridge and in I^ndon, in the years 1730 and 1731. In tlie beginning of 

 the year 1733, he was elected Professor of Botany by the unanimous voice of the University." 



" Dr. Martyn had practised physic for three years in the city, but on account of an asthmatic 

 complaint, removed in the year 1730 to Chelsea, where he continued in the exercise of that pro- 

 fession until his retirement to Streatham in 1752. In l76l, he resigned his professorship; and soon 

 after, in gratitude for the favour of having cliosen him, and his son after hira, to this post, he pre- 

 tented to tjie University his botanical library, consisting of upwards of 200 volumes ; his Hortus 



