news and update ISSN 1948‐6596 book review The palm book The Book of Palms, by Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius [a reprint of the 240 illustrations from C. F. P. von Martius’ Historia Naturalis Palmarum, published in installments between 1823 and 1850, with an introduction by H. Walter Lack] 2009, Taschen, 442 pp. ISBN: 978‐3‐8365‐1779‐9 Price: £99.99 (Hardback); http://www.taschen.com/ This is a magnificent reprint of one of the most influential books in the botanical literature, Mar‐ tius’ Historia Naturalis Palmarum, famed for its scientific accuracy and aesthetic qualities. Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius (1795–1868) was an assistant at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sci‐ ences when in 1817, aged 22, he was asked by Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, to join an expedition that was sent to Brazil by Franz I, Em‐ peror of Austria. The expedition was held on the occasion of the marriage of Franz I’s daughter Leo‐ poldine to Dom Pedro, eldest son of Joao VI, King of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve. The wedding was celebrated in Vienna on 13th May 1817, but later confirmed in Rio de Janeiro, and the 13‐man natural history expedition was organized to foster relationships and increase trade between Brazil and the European kingdoms with interest in these new frontiers. The celebration in Rio was held on 6 November 1817, and following that, Martius and his zoological companion Johan Baptiste Spix set out on a 2200 km long journey to the interior of Brazil. During the journey they amassed large quantities of natural history specimens, and when Martius returned to Munich on 8th December 1820, almost four years had passed. Martius and Spix had brought back considerable collections of rocks and minerals, 350 species of birds, 130 am‐ phibians, 116 fish, 2700 insects, 80 arachnids, 50 crustaceans and 6500 plants. The other members of the expedition had returned similar quantities to Vienna and other European museums. Apparently being a natural historian and collector at that time was something important to the political powers. King Maximilian I Joseph made Martius and Spix Knights of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown. Aged 26 Martius was elected a full member of the Royal Bavarian Acad‐ emy of Sciences. At age 31 in 1826 Ludvig I, King of Bavaria, made Martius full professor at the Uni‐ versity of Landshut. In 1832 he became senior cu‐ rator of the Botanical Institute, and in 1840 he was elected secretary of the Mathematics and Science section of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, a post which he had until his death in From this background it is perhaps easier to understand how Martius could publish such a magnificent work on his collections from Brazil. Actually he worked on three large book projects simultaneously. One was a general account of the expedition which was published as Reise in Brasil‐ ien in den Jahren 1817–1820 and published 1823– 1831. The other was Nova genera et species plan‐ tarum quas in itinere per Brasilian annis 1817– 1820 ‐‐‐ suscepto colegit et descripsit, published 1823–1826, which was a technical description of all the plants – except palms – that Martius had collected during his travels. Finally the third book project that Martius embarked on during his ten‐ ure at the Bavaria academic establishment was Historia naturalis palmarum, the illustrations of which are featured in the book reviewed here. The finished version of Historia naturalis palmarum was made up of three volumes. But the volumes did not appear chronologically. Instead they were released in fascicles at irregular inter‐ vals. The first fascicles to appear in 1823 were from volume 2 on the American palms, and this volume was completed in 1837. This was followed by volume 3 which was completed in 1853. Vol‐ ume 1 began to appear in 1831 and was com‐ pleted in 1853. The publication was printed at the author’s expense, and to finance that, Martius had secured that it could be sold through subscription. Those who subscribed appear on a page in the 2nd volume and include several central European royalties, and some of the famous cultural leaders © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 3.2, 2011