21 
of Edinburgh, Sessio?i 1869 - 70 . 
most inhospitable and dangerous regions of the New World. Both 
explorers, however, escaped without any important disaster on the 
road, and they had the rare good fortune to preserve and bring 
home their collections, complete and uninjured, through all the 
perils to which they were exposed. These collections, finer and 
richer than all previous and most subsequent ones from Brazil, 
were made over to the Academy. 
The task thus successfully achieved established Martius’s reputa¬ 
tion, and settled for life the special destination of his studies. He 
received from his sovereign distinguished honours, and was recog¬ 
nised by men of science as worthy of a high place among them. 
The publication of the narrative of this Brazilian journey, which 
appeared in 1823-31, and which, in consequence of the early death 
of Spix, was chiefly prepared by Martius, carried the admiration 
of his talents to a very high pitch. There was here seen a worthy 
rival of Alexander Humboldt; and readers were at a loss whether 
to admire most the copiousness of the information furnished, or 
the beauty of the diction, and the poetical and yet truthful power of 
the colouring, in which were presented all the characteristic features 
of those wonderful regions, with their productions and their inha¬ 
bitants. A relative work at the same time was commenced, and 
continued in a magnificent series of volumes, exhibiting to scientific 
eyes the minute representation and description of the natural ob¬ 
jects, whether plants or animals, with which the expedition had made 
the travellers familiar. The esteem in which these works were 
held procured for Martius the distinguished honour of being elected 
a member of the Trench Institute. He was enrolled in nearly all 
the other learned bodies in Europe ; he was appointed an Honorary 
Member of our own Society in the year 1855. 
After the accession of Louis I. to the Bavarian throne, Martius 
was appointed Professor of Botany in the University of Munich, 
and subsequently was promoted to be Chief Conservator of the 
Botanic Gfarden. 
In 1823, Martius began his celebrated Monograph upon Palms, 
which was completed in three folio volumes in 1845. It is con¬ 
sidered one of the finest monuments of modern botany, and is said 
to contain a description of 582 different species of Palm, while 
Linnaeus had only given 15, and Humboldt 99. It was to 
