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CARL FRIEURICH PHILLIPP VON MARTIUS. 17
on all the islands at the mouth of the Canton Eiver, a maritime
atmosphere would appear absolutely essential to its existence ; for I
have never met with it along the banks of the river, nor indeed any-
where, except near the sea. This agrees well with Eoxburgh's state-
ment, that " it is a native of dry, barren ground, particularly near the
sea."
As there is certainly but one Phoenix indigenous to Southern China,
it is probable that Vachell's specimens, referred by Hooker and Arnott*
to P. dactylifera, belong to this species.
Partly at the request of M. Naudin, made at a time when the species
was undetermined, I have transmitted fresli seeds to him and a few
friends in Europe, with a view to essay its introduction in the neigh-
bourhood of Nice, and at Hycres, where thei-e seems little reason to
doubt it would grow readily, sub dio.
British Vice- Consulate, Whampoa,
October 28, 1868.
CARL FllIEDRICH PHILLIPP VON MARTIUS.
This great botanist, distinguished traveller, and most illustrious
man died on the 13th of December, 1868, at Munich.
He was born at Erlangen, on the 17th of April, 1791. His father,
Ernest Wilhelra Martins, who died at an advanced age in 1849, was,
with Hoppe, one of the founders of Eatisbon Botanical Society, and
author of a natiu-al history ' Jouniey in Franconia and Thuringia,'
and of the ' Memories of a Ninety Years' Life,' containing many in-
teresting pictures of social life in Germany during the period embraced
in it.
Carl Martins pursued his natural history studies in Erlangen, under
the direction of his father and his father's friends. He was the
botanical pupil of Schreber, the disciple of Linnteus, and editor of the
eighth edition of the ' Genera Plautarum,' and to him he was un-
doubtedly indebted for the careful training in the fundamental prin-
ciples of that science to which he was to devote his life, and which by
his labours he was greatly to advance. But his studies were very
Bot. Beechey's Voj. 219.
VOL. VII. [JANUARY 1, 1869.] C