450 
MAR 
ers at the divifions of the branches may be brought for¬ 
ward in July ; thofe at the extremities come afterwards, 
fo that there is a fucceflion of flowers on the fame plant 
to Oftober, when the plants decay. It was difcovered 
Dr. William Houftoun, near Vera Cruz, in New Spain ; 
whence he Cent the feeds to England, which fucceeded 
very well in the botanic garden at Chelfea; and in the 
year 1731 feveral of thefe plants were raifed, which pro¬ 
duced their beautiful flowers, and perfected their feed, 
whence feveral plants were raifed the fucceeding year. 
This has been much confounded with the fifth fort. The 
annexed Plate is from Martyn’s Hilt. Plant, rar. men¬ 
tioned in the preceding article, 
4. Martynia craniolaria, or white-flowered martynia: 
branches dichotomous, leaves half-five-lobed; calyx with 
a one-leafed fpathe. See the delcription under Cranio¬ 
laria, vol. v. p. 323. It is now generally agreed that 
thefe genera ought to be united ; both having a rnonope- 
talous ringent corolla, with the rudiment of a fifth ita- 
men ; and a capfule fimilar in ftrufture. 
5. Martynia probofcidea, or liairy martynia: flem 
branched, leaves quite entire, cordate ; finufes dilated. 
This is a large plant, two feet high, flexuofe, herbaceous, 
villofe, vifcid. Stem Angle, round, pale green; branches 
feveral, fcattered, refembling the ftem. Root-leaves 
none. Stem-leaves oppofite and alternate, ftiffilh, waved, 
veined, yellowifh green, five inches long, Flowers feve¬ 
ral, peduncled, in a loofe thyrfe in the forks of the 
branches, two inches long. Corolla inferior, four times 
as long as the calyx ; tube yellowifh white, variegated 
with green, yellow, and violet, fpots ; border wide, waved, 
pale violet, with faffron-coloured and violet dots and 
lines, divided into two lefs dittinft lips; fegments round- 
ifli, the middle one larger, painted at the bafe with ful- 
pliur-coloured lines refembling the ftamens and the flyle 
with the fligma. Seeds fubcordate, comprefl'ed, rugged. 
Gsertner adds, that there are four cells, but that a fifth 
arifes,when the tranfverfe partitions becoming ripe recede 
from each other, and leave an empty (pace in the axis of 
the fruit; the feeds are about twelve in the whole capfule, 
ovate-acuminate, berried, when ripe rugged with tuber¬ 
cles, black with a coppery brightnefs ; they are in a Angle 
longitudinal row in each cell, and faftened to the parti¬ 
tions. The fruit is fo well Agured by this author, as that 
of the third fpecies is by Houltoun, that they cannot be 
aniftaken. The whole plant of the third is alfo figured by 
Martyn and Ehret (fee our Plate) ; as that of the fifth is 
by Miller, Gloxin, Sabbati, Kretzchmar, and Schmidel, 
fo well that there can be no difficulty in diflinguifliing 
them. The probofcidea may alfo be known by its fcat¬ 
tered branches ; leaves oppofite, and alternate, cordate- 
ovate, quite entire, waved, and fomewiiat rigid ; its one- 
leafed calyx ; the tube of the corolla very wide^with the 
border more irregular ; all the four filaments fertile, and 
bent in one among another ; and finally by the very long 
beaks to the capfule. Native of America ; cultivated in 
3759 by Mr. Miller; flowers from June to Augnff. 
6. Martynia fruticofa, or fhrubby martynia : fhrubby, 
leaves lanceolate-ferrate, toothed ; upper lip of the corolla 
with numerous curled fegments. See the defcription un¬ 
der Gesneria craniolaria, vol. viii. p. 535. to which ge¬ 
nus it certainly belongs, from its habit, infiorefcence, 
flower, and fruit. Linnaeus’s generic charaffer by no 
means accords with it, and Plunder was long fince aware 
of its affinity to Gefneria. It may be added, that the 
Item is upright; the leaves folitary and villofe; the flow¬ 
ers folitary from the angles of the branches ; calyx per¬ 
manent, fegments long and lharp. Cultivated by Mr. 
Miller in 1759. 
Propagation and Culture. The annual forts muff he pro¬ 
pagated by feeds town in pots filled with light rich earth, 
and plunged into a hot-bed of tanner’s bark, where, if 
the earth be duly watered, the plants will appear in three 
weeks or a month ; tranfplant them in a little time after 
ihey come up, each into a feparate pot, and plunge them 
MAR 
into the hot-bed again, watering them well, and (hatting 
them until they have taken new root; after which they 
(hould have a large (hare of frefli air admitted to them in 
warm weather, by railing the glades of the hot-bed every 
day. With this management the plants will make great 
progrefs, fo as to till the pots with their roots in about 
a month or fix weeks time, when they Ihoulti be (bitted 
into pots about a foot diameter at the top, filled with 
light rich earth, and then plunged into the hot-bed in 
the bark-ltove, where they (hould be allowed room, be- 
caufe they put out many fide-branches, and will grow 
three feet high or more, according to the warmth of the 
bed, and the care which is taken to (apply them con- 
ftantly with water; and (hould be conitantly kept in the 
tan-bed, giving them plenty of free air at all times when 
the weather is warm; but they will not bear to be ex- 
pofed abroad in this country. When thefe plants thrive 
well, they will fend out many fide-branches, which will 
all of them produce fmall fpikes of flowers ; but it is only 
from the fir It fpike of flowers that good feeds can be ex¬ 
pected in this country, fo that particular care (hould be 
taken, that none of thefe are pulled oft' or deftroyed, be- 
caule it is very difficult to obtain good feeds here; and 
indeed few of thofe that are produced on the fide- 
branches in the natural country of their growth, are duly- 
ripened. 
MARTYR, / [Greek.] One who by his death bears 
witnefs to the truth.—To he a martyr fignifies only to 
witnefs the truth of'Chrilt; but the witnelling of the 
truth was then fo generally attended with persecution, 
that martyrdom now fignifies not only to witnefs, but to 
witnefs by death. South's Sermons. 
Nearer heaven his virtues (hone more bright, 
Like fifing flames expanding in their heighr, 
The martyr's glory crown’d the foldier’s fight. Dryd&n, 
The Chriftian church has abounded in martyrs, and 
hiftory is filled with furprifing accounts of their lingular 
conftancy and fortitude under the cruellelt torture human 
nature was capable of fuffering. 
St. Stephen is called the proto-martyr, or fir(t martyr. 
The firll three or four ages of the church were ftained 
with the blood of martyrs, who fuffered for the name of 
Jefus; and, according to fome calculators, 19,700 perfons 
are computed to have fuffered martyrdom with St. Irenasus 
at Lyons, under the empire of Severus; 6666 fold.iers of the 
Theban legion are faid to have been martyred in Gaul 3 
father Papebroch reckons 16,000 Abyffinian martyrs, and 
150,000 others, under Diocletian alone. 
Mr. Dodwell, however, endeavours to invalidate thefe 
decifions of the ancient hiftorians, and to prove in a dif- 
fertation (De Paucitate Martyrum), that the number of 
martyrs who fuffered under the Roman emperors was 
very moderate; alleging, that thofe of whom we have 
accounts in the fathers, ate comprehended within a very 
fmall compafs ; and that, excepting Nero and Domitian, 
the reft of the emperors made fcarcely any. After Dod¬ 
well, feveral writers have maintained his opinion, and af- 
ferted that, whatever may have been the calamities which 
the Chriftians in general fuffered for their attachment to 
the Gofpel, very few were put to death on that account. 
In this number we may include Mr. Gibbon, the celebrated 
hiftorian of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 
who, after obferving that “ the deaths of a few eminent 
martyrs have been recorded with care,” profeffes “ to fe¬ 
parate (if it he poflible) a few authentic as well as inte- 
relting tafts from an indigefted mafs of fiftion and error, 
and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the caufes, 
the extent, the duration, and the moll important circum- 
ftances, of the perfecutions to which the firff Chriftians 
were expofed. It muff (he fays) be acknowledged, that 
the conduct of the emperors who appeared the leaft fa¬ 
vourable to the primitive church, is by no means fo cri¬ 
minal as that of modern fovereigns, who have employed 
the arm of violence and tenor againlt the religious opi- 
1 mans. 
