Joseph Martin (gardener)
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Joseph Martin (
fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
1788–c.1819) was an
Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
gardener-botanist and plant collector who worked at the
Jardin du Roi The Jardin des Plantes (, ), also known as the Jardin des Plantes de Paris () when distinguished from other ''jardins des plantes'' in other cities, is the main botanical garden in France. Jardin des Plantes is the official name in the present da ...
in Paris. He was sent on collecting expeditions to the Isle de France (now
Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
),
Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
,
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...
and
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
.


Gardener-botanists in the Enlightenment

During the Enlightenment, both France and England organised elaborate programs of plant introduction to explore the potential of plants not only as food for their colonies but as botanical novelties of all kinds. In Paris, the project planning was placed in the hands of the Head Gardener of the
Jardin du Roi The Jardin des Plantes (, ), also known as the Jardin des Plantes de Paris () when distinguished from other ''jardins des plantes'' in other cities, is the main botanical garden in France. Jardin des Plantes is the official name in the present da ...
,
André Thouin André Thouin (10 February 1747 – 24 October 1824) was a French botanist. Thouin studied botany under Bernard de Jussieu, and in 1793 attained the chair of horticulture at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. He was a good ...
, who recommended an inventory of plants, both native and exotic, in each colony, and the development of a reciprocal plant exchange system – all under the control of the garden in Paris. Part of this program was the sending of outstanding horticulturists and botanists (élève-botanists and élève-jardiniers) on voyages of scientific exploration.


Collecting in Mauritius

In 1788 Martin was selected by Thouin as the first outstanding gardener to collect plant specimens for the Jardin du Roi in Madagascar and the Caribbean. The mission (1788–1789) was to the Isle de France (Mauritius), taking European plants for cultivation, with instructions to collect useful indigenous and cultivated plants from the Mascarenes and take them to French colonies in the West Indies for introduction as new crops. He was to send spice and other plants to acclimatize in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Cayenne Cayenne (; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Caye ...
(
French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
) and
Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...
gardens and was given extensive instructions by Thouin ('Memoire sur le transport des vegetaux par mer et par terre’) on how to collect and transport his botanical collections. This first mission was to the Isle de France, Joseph Martin sailing from Le Havre on 5 May 1788 in the ''Stanislas'' arriving on 26 July. At the Jardin du Roi, Pamplemousses he was hosted and trained by Director Jean-Nicolas Céré from July 1788 to March 1789. He returned to France on 31 July 1789 having successfully introduced plants to Cayenne (French Guiana), Martinique and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and brought herbarium material collected in Africa, South America and the West Indies for J.B. de Lamarck.British Museum
/ref> He also found time to botanise on Madagascar and the Cape. Martin completed his brief by transporting spice plants to Port-au-Prince, and also returning plants to Thouin at the Jardin du Roi.


Directorship in French Guiana

In 1790, he was appointed Director of the cultivation of spice plants in the acclimatisation garden at Cayenne in present-day French Guiana. He was then sent out again to South America, to oversee the cultivation of spice crops. Then, when he returned to France during the Napoleonic Wars in May 1803, his ship, a French ship of war, ''L'Union'', was captured by two British privateers. Martin was imprisoned, the ship and contents subsequently being sold for prize money. Although he was later repatriated to France, a collection of his herbarium plants was auctioned in England. Material purchased by A.B. Lambert was subsequently acquired by the British Museum in 1842 during the auction of Lambert's own herbarium. Further material of Martin's was acquired by the British Museum along with the herbarium of E. Rudge in 1847. Martin collected herbarium specimens in France, Southern Africa, the Madagascan region, Mauritius, Martinique, and French Guiana. They are housed in Paris, Geneva, Vienna and British Museum. In 1888, botanist
Henri Ernest Baillon Henri Ernest Baillon (; 30 November 1827 in Calais – 19 July 1895 in Paris) was a French botanist and physician. Baillon spent his academic career teaching natural history and publishing numerous works on botany. He was appointed to the Lé ...
published a genus of
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
s from Mexico and Tropical America, belonging to the family
Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae () is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpet vines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant ...
as '' Martinella'' in his honour.


See also

*
List of gardener-botanist explorers of the Enlightenment The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing di ...
*
European and American voyages of scientific exploration The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * * *


Further reading

* Chaudhri, M.N., Vegter, H.I. & de Bary, H.A., Index Herb. Coll. I-L: 406 (1972) * Dorr, L.J. Pl. Collectors Madagasc. Comoro Is.: 298 (1997) * Stafleu, F.A. & Cowan, R.S., Taxon. Lit. ed. 2, 2: 735 (1979) * Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. M: 507 (1976) * Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. N-R: 795 (1983) {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Joseph French gardeners French horticulturists Year of birth missing 1826 deaths 19th-century French botanists 19th-century French explorers 18th-century births