€o PROCEEDINGS OF XIIE 



lie did much to extend our iciiowledge of South African floras, had 

 he lived longer he would undoubtedly have produced a work of 

 first-rate importance, giving tlie results of his observations in many 

 regions and liis considered conclusions on phytogeographical 

 problems. In addition to several papers dealing witii the results 

 of his expeditions, published in the 'Annals of tlie South African 

 Museum,' Pearson contributed an admirably Mi'itten account of his 

 travels in South- West Africa to tlie 'Geograpbieal Journal' (1910), 

 and shorter sketches were published in the * (-Jardeners' Chronicle' 

 (1909), 'Nature' (1909) and elsewhere. Pearson made a few 

 excursions into applied Botany, and his paper on the Witchweed 

 {Stnga lutea) admirably illustrates the value of a thorough 

 acquaintance with pure Botany as a qualification for grappling 

 with questions of Agricultural importance. During an enforced 

 halt in jN'ainaqualaiid he devoted himself to the investigation of 

 certain physiological phenomena, and recorded his results in a 

 paper published in the ' Annals of Botany ' (1914) on the internal 

 temperatures of Eup/iorbia virostt and Aloe dichotoma. 



The history of his connection with the foundation of the 

 National Botanic Garden is too long to record in full. In a 

 Presidential address to the Botanical Section of the South African 

 Association for the Advancement of Science (1910) he stated tlie 

 case for the establishment of a National Garden with admirable 

 wisdom and foresight, and urged the importance of adding to the 

 Grarden a National Uerbai'ium, a Museum of Economic Botany, a 

 Library, and Research Laboratories, After overcoming many 

 diiliculties his persistence was rewarded by the unanimous decision 

 of the House of Assembly, on May 6, 1913, to establish a State 

 Garden on the Kirstenbosch estate on the eastern slope of Table 

 Mountain. Pearson was elected Honorary Director, and his time 

 was thenceforth divided between the Garden and the South African 

 College, a double responsibility which tasked his strength to the 

 utmost. As the author of an article in ' The Cape ' wrote — " The 

 best memorial that can be raised to him is to see that liis work at 

 Kirstenbosch is carried on, and the National Botanic Gardens 

 made what he pictured them in his minds eye. That is the A\ay 

 to perpetuate his memory, for, as long as Kirstenbosch exists, 

 there will be linked with it the name of its founder — the scholar 

 and gentleman, Harold Pearson," 



Pearson accomplished much in a short life, a life of unselfish 

 devotion to Science and to the service of the State: he was a 

 delightful companion, full of human sympathy and blessed with a 

 keen sense of humour. One of his favourite authors was Charles 

 Lamb, whose Essays and generally a volume of Shakespeare's 

 plays Avere his companions on many journeys. He was in an 

 exceptional degree a man who inspired respect and affection : in 

 the words of one of his old students, *' He was the very best head 

 of a department that I have ever worked for, the most tolerant 

 and the broadest miuded ; it was a real pleasure to act as his 

 subordinate." [A. C. Seavakd.] 



