John Martyn

John Martyn (born Sept. 12, 1699, London—died Jan. 29, 1768, Chelsea, London) was a botanist and author known for his translations of Virgil. During the 1720s, Martyn worked as an apothecary, introducing the plants valerian and black currants and the use of peppermint water into pharmaceutical practice. He also lectured on botany, in which he was largely self-taught. The first edition of his Historia plantarum rariorum (1728; “History of Rare Plants”) described and illustrated English...