Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/323

Martyn latum in urbe Schiraz, nunc vero cura et sumptibus Societatis Biblicæ Ruthenicæ typis datum,' St. Petersburg, 1815, 4to. 4. 'The New Testament translated into Persian ... by H. Martyn. . . with the Assistance of Meerza Sueyid Ulee,' Calcutta, 1816, 8vo; 3rd edit. London, 1827, 8vo; another edit. Calcutta, 1841, 8vo; 5th edit. Edinburgh, 1846, 4to; 6th edit. London, 1876, 8vo; 7th edit. 1878, 12mo. 5. 'Controversial Tracts on Christianity and Mohammedanism, by the late Rev. H. Martyn. . . and some of the most eminent Writers of Persia, translated and explained. To which is appended an additional Tract ... by the Rev. Samuel Lee,' Cambridge, 1824, 8vo, with portrait of Martyn. 6. 'The Gospels and Acts in English and Hindusthani. St. Matthew. Translated by II. Martyn,' Calcutta, 1837, 8vo. 7. 'The Gospels translated into the Judeeo-Persic Language,' London, 1847, 8vo (the Persian translation in the Hebrew character). 8. 'The Book of Psalms translated into Persian' (two editions, with title-pages in Persian, but without place or date or printer's name), 4to.

A manuscript Hindustani translation of the Book of Genesis, in the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society, has been ascribed to Martyn, but it is doubtful whether it is in his writing (Sixty-sixth Rep. Brit, and For. Bible Soc, 1870, pp. 187-8). His portrait has been engraved after Hickey by Say, and also by Worthington and Woodman.

 MARTYN, JOHN (1699–1768), botanist, born 12 Sept. 1699 in Queen Street, London, was son of Thomas Martyn, a Hamburg merchant, who died in 1743. His mother, whose maiden name was Katharine Weedon, died in 1700. Martyn was sent to a neighbouring private school, and when he was sixteen was placed in his father's counting-house. Of studious tastes, he for some years only allowed himself four hours' sleep in the twenty-four. He seems to have been attracted to the study of botany at an early age. In 1716 he printed, but did not publish, 'The Compleat Herbal,' translated from that of Tournefort, 'with large additions from Ray, Gerard, &c.,' 2 vols. 4to. In 1718 he made the acquaintance of John Wilmer, an apothecary, who was afterwards demonstrator at the Chelsea Garden, and was by him introduced to William Sherard [q. v.] and to Dr. Patrick Blair, with whom he corresponded for many years. In 1720 he translated Tournefort's 'History of Plants growing about Paris; ' but, awaiting a new edition by Vaillant, did not print his work until 1732, so that his first published work (excepting, perhaps, the fragment of the 'Compleat Herbal') was an English translation of ' An Ode formerly dedicated to Camerarius,' from the epistle 'De Sexu Plantarum,' printed in Blair's 'Botanick Essays' (1720) as ' by J. Martyn, Φιλοβοτανικoς.'

He joined Wilmer and the apothecaries in their 'herborizings' and made many excursions on foot in the home counties, collecting plants, and afterwards insects, until his hortus siccus contained 1,400 specimens. The study of Csesalpinus directed his attention to fruits, seeds, and germination, so that he not only grew many seedlings but actually discussed with Blair the framing of a natural system of classification based upon the cotyledons.

About 1721 he made the acquaintance of Dillenius, and, with him, Dr. Charles Deering, Dr. Thomas Dale, Philip Miller, and others, established a botanical society, which for some six years met every Saturday evening at the Rainbow Coffee-house, Watling Street, Dillenius being president and Martyn secretary. To this society he read a course of lectures on botanical terminology, which he afterwards published as the first lecture of a course.

Martyn saw his friend Blair's 'Pharmaco-Botanologia' (1723-8) through the press, and was by him introduced to Sloane in 1724, in which year he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, an honour which he had previously declined through modesty. In 1725 he contributed an explanation of the technical terms of botany to Nathan Bailey's 'Dictionary,' and seems to have delivered his first public course of lectures on botany in London, which he repeated in the following year. Having, in conjunction with Blair, begun a collection of birds, apparently for anatomical purposes, he visited Wales by way of Bristol, returning by Hereford, Worcester, and Oxford, and twice made collections in Sheppey.

On the recommendation of Sloane and Sherard he was invited to lecture at Cambridge, and did so in 1727, printing for his pupils' use a 'Method us Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium,' which is Ray's 