HENRY HAROLD WELCH PEARSON, 



M.A.. Sc.D., F.R.S. 



The lanienied death of Professor I'earson at the com- 

 paratively early age of 46. is beins^ realised by us more 

 and more as a great blow to botanical science in South 

 Africa. His varied activities outside the s])here of Botany 

 have been recognised by others more qualitied than the present 

 writer to speak of them, but Dr. Pearson was pre-eminently an 

 enthusiast in his chosen profession. He was. however, in no 

 sense a narrow specialist. He was keenly alive to the possi- 

 bilities of many somewhat widely divergent lines of enquiry. 

 In his own researches he showed this by not confining his at- 

 tention to any single field. He also ]x)ssessed that happy faculty 

 of inspiring enthusiasm in others, and it was in this connection 

 that his breadth of view^ and varied interest was most apparent. 



After a distinguished career at Cambridge — he obtained a 

 first-class in both parts of the Natttral Sciences Trii)os (1896-97), 

 and in 1899 won the Walsingham medal — Pearson added to his 

 experience and gained a knowledge of wider Botany by visiting 

 Ceylon as Frank Smart Travelling Student. In Ceylon he made 

 a thorough investigation of the vegetation of the patanas. He 

 returned to Cambridge in 1898, and was elected Curator of the 

 University Herbarium. A year later he went to Kew, where he 

 remained until 1902, when he received his appointment as Harry 

 Bolus Professor of Botany in the South .\frican College. 



I^earson's first published work (i8(;S) \\a- a i>:q)cr on the 

 anatomy of the seedling of the Cycad Bowciiia. but his atten- 

 tion for the first few years of his career was directed chiefly 

 towards Systematic Botanv. He wrote the section on the Ver- 

 benacea? for the '' Flora Capensis " in 1901. • .\fter coming to 

 South Africa he established his reputation as a plant mori)holo- 

 gist, his most important work being on IVchvitsrhia and Giicfiiiu. 

 He demonstrated the nature of the " endosperm." wliich lie pro- 

 posed to call a tropho])hyte, and cleared up many points regard- 

 ing the degree of affinity between the Gnetales and the .\ngio- 

 sperms. This and similar worl< was continued up to the time 

 <^)f his death, and the MS. (>t' a book on the ( Inctales has. been 

 left almost complete. 1 rememl)er. in the cmn-se of conversa- 

 tion. Dr. I'earson once mentioned to me that some of his friends 

 in l-Jigland. wlio arc leading botanists, were of the opinion that 

 .he ought to confine his attention entirely to this l)ranch of the 

 subject. But this was not Pearson's view. lie realised that 

 while many ])roblenis in connection with the ])otanv of South 

 .Africa could e(|uall\- well be solved in I'.n^land. there were 

 others that conld only be dealt with 1)\- a botanist resident in this 

 country, and he thought, and thought rightlv, that it was his 

 dutv to devote attention to the latter. 



He therefore commenced bis l)otanicaI e.\pediti«nis to 

 Xania(|nalan<l. South-West Africa, and An'j(^la, assisted l)y 

 funds from the Percy Sladen Tru-i. lie endured great hard- 

 .^hips. and it is not too much to sa\ . perhaps, that these helped 



