MARTIUS, Carl Friedrich Philipp von (1794— 1868), a well-known German botanist and traveller in Brazil. He studied in the university of Erlangen, and on graduating M.D. in 1814 published as his thesis a critical catalogue of plants in the botanic garden of the university. He afterwards devoted himself to botanical study, and in 1817 he and Sρix were sent to Brazil by the king of Bavaria. They travelled from Rio Janeiro through several of the southern and eastern provinces of Brazil, and ascended the river Amazon to Tabatinga, as well as some of its larger affluents. In 1820 they returned to Europe with rich collections of plants and animals, as also with stores of information on the geography, ethnology, and products of Brazil. In 1820 he was appointed conservator of the botanic garden at Munich, and in 1826 professor of botany in the university there, and held both offices till 1854, when he resigned them....
While a student Martius had published papers in various scientific periodicals, and he continued to do so during his whole life. After his return from Brazil he devoted his chief attention to the flora of that country, and in addition to numerous short papers he published the Nova Genera et. Species Plantarum Brasiliensium (1823—32, 3 vols. ) and leones selectae Plantarum Cryptogamicarum Brasiliensium (1827), both works being finely illustrated. An account of his travels in Brazil appeared in 3 vols. 4to, 1823-31, with an atlas of plates, and is regarded as one of the most valuable works of travel of the present century. Probably the work by which he is best known is his Historia Palmarum (1823-50) in 3 large folio volumes, of which one describes the palms discovered by himself in Brazil. In 1840 he began the Flora Brasiliensis with the assistance of the most distinguished European botanists, who undertook monographs of the various orders. Latterly Dr Eichler was associated with him in the editorship of this work, which is still going on, though over eighty parts have appeared. He also edited several works on the zoological collections made in Brazil by Spix, after the death of the latter in 1826. On the outbreak of potato disease in Europe he investigated the state of the diseased plants, and in 1842 published his observations. He also published independent works and short papers on the aborigines of Brazil, on their civil and social condition, on their past and probable future, on their diseases and medicines, and on the languages of the various tribes, especially the Tupi.
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