LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 59- 



assistance of co-workers, he added considerably to our knowledge 

 of the South African Cycads, particuhirly as i-egards the evidence 

 in favour of insect-pollination. The Cycad plantation in the 

 Kirstenbosch Garden, which includes about 500 specimens, was 

 arranged and in part planted with his own hands by Prof. Pearson, 

 and it was on a slope facing his favourite plants that he was 

 buried. His field-work in Ceylon led to two important papers, 

 the second in collaboration with his friend J. Parkin, botii of 

 which were published in the Journal of the Linnean Society. 

 Considering the short time at his disposal and his inexperience as 

 an investigator, the success with which Pearson attacked the 

 difficult problems connected with the question of the development 

 of the Patanas is remarkable. This apprenticeship to field-work 

 on a large scale was invaluable to him in later years, wlien he had 

 many opportunities of studying the diverse floras met with in his^ 

 African expeditions. His output from Kew consisted chiefly of 

 descriptive systematic work, but lie also found time to write an 

 interesting account of some species of Bischidia, dealing chiefly 

 with the morphology of the double pitchers : this paper was 

 published in the Journal of the Linnean Society in 1901. He 

 also rendered much assistance to Mr. Hemsley in the preparation 

 of a comprehensive account of the Flora of Tibet, Pearson's most 

 important work was on Welwitschia and Onetum. In 1904 he 

 paid his first visit to German South- West Africa, and collected 

 material of WelwitscMa which enabled him to amplify and extend 

 Sir Joseph Hooker's classic memoir on that genus in a paper pub- 

 lished in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' 190fi. He visited the 

 German Territory three times, and in January, 1916, he w-as at 

 Windhuk at the headquarters of the Union Forces after the 

 country had been conquered by General Botha's Army. A second 

 expedition to Damaraland in 1906-7 enabled him to fill in many 

 gaps in his first paper on WelivifscJiia, and in a later contribution 

 (1909), also published by the Royal Society, he devoted special 

 attention to the morphological nature of the tissue in the embryo- 

 sac. During an expedition in 1908-9 financed by the Percy Sladen 

 Trustees, to whom he was indebted for assistance on several 

 occasions, he collected material of Gnetum africcmum in Angola, 

 of which he made the fullest use, both by his ovi'u researches and 

 by generously sharing the spoil with other botanists. Pearson's 

 critical investigations on the Gnetales have thrown much new 

 light on the inter- relationships of the genera and of the Gnetales 

 with the Angiosperms ; they are characterized by clearness of 

 reasoning and originality, and contain new morphological con- 

 ceptions. 



Pearson was an exceptionally good explorer ; he was much more 

 than a successful collector and practised systematist ; he planned 

 his expeditions on broad lines and had always in view the col- 

 lection of evidence which might throw light on the events which 

 led to the development of the South African floras. Though by 

 the discovery of numerous new types and by his systematic papers 



