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CARL FRIEDRICH PHILLIPP VON MARTIUS. 19<br />

had suffered severely from the tropical climate and the fatigues of the<br />

expedition, and survived his return only a few years, leaving the nar-<br />

rative of the jom"uey to be finished by Martius, and the systematical<br />

zoological memoii's to be superintended by him, in addition to the bo-<br />

tanical work which was properly his own.<br />

The narrative of the journey, ' Eeise in Brasilien,' consists of three<br />

quarto volumes and an atlas in folio. It is written in a clear and elegant<br />

style, and abounds with topographical and statistical details, descrip-<br />

tions of natural scenery and personal adventure. The specific descrip-<br />

tions of the plants and animals were reserved for special publication,<br />

but the work abounds with information on their geographical distri-<br />

bution.<br />

The Palms were the first portions of his collections with which he<br />

worked, and the first part of the ' Genera et Species Palmarum ' was<br />

published in 1823. This was intended to be confined to Brazilian<br />

Palms, but was ultimately extended so as to comprise a history of the<br />

entire family. The work was completed in 1850, in three large folio<br />

volumes containing 245 plates, most of them coloured, and some of<br />

them exquisitely finished landscapes, exhibiting the habits of the species<br />

in the scenery and among the plants with which they are in nature<br />

associated. The first volume treats of Palms in general, and includes<br />

a dissertation by Mohl on raonocotyledonous stems, and another by<br />

Unger on Fossil Palms. The second volume is devoted to Brazilian<br />

species, and the third is a complete monograph of the Order. The<br />

singular fidelity with which the descriptions were made, and the figuns<br />

drawn, make this noble work, although some portions of it are nearly<br />

fifty years old, equal to the most recently published monographs.<br />

On a similarly magnificent scale did he design his ' Xova Genera<br />

et Species Plantarum Brasiliensis,' the first volume of which, by<br />

Zuccarini, was published in 1 824 ;<br />

the only two other volumes of this<br />

work published were by Martius himself, the one in 1826, and the<br />

other in 1829-32.<br />

The volume on eryptogamic plants ' Icones Plant. Crypt, in Brasilia<br />

coUegit,' published between 1828 and 1831, belongs to the same<br />

series. To the descriptions of the Ferns by Martius was prefixed an<br />

elaborate dissertation on the structure of the stems of Tree-ferns by<br />

Mohl, accompanied with eight illustrative plates.<br />

The magnitude of these elaborate works, and the time necessarily<br />

c 2

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