[1] 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.
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.
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.
[2][4] Martin collected herbarium specimens in France, Southern Africa, the Madagascan region, Mauritius, Martinique, and French Guiana.
[5][6][7] In 1888, botanist Henri Ernest Baillon published a genus of flowering plants from Mexico and Tropical America, belonging to the family Bignoniaceae as Martinella in his honour.