Novemser 16, 1916] 
operation, It is only fair to point out that such 
untoward accidents did occur from time to time 
when Jena glassware was used, but, broadly 
speaking, they were rare. It is, of course, too 
early in their career to pronounce upon the British 
manufacturers of these goods in this respect, and 
the matter is only mentioned here in the desire to 
impress upon them the extreme importance of this 
factor of uniformity and trustworthiness. - Beauti- 
ful samples sent for exhibition and specimens sent 
for trial or test which behave extremely well may 
serve to initiate trade and to introduce the pro- 
ducts, but only complete regularity and depend- 
ence will ever succeed in building up a permanent 
industry and trade in these goods. 
PROF. H. H. W. PEARSON, F.R.S. 
WY the death of Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, 
which occurred on November 3 at the Mount 
Royal Hospital, Wynberg, Cape Colony, South 
Africa is deprived of one of the ablest and most 
popular of her scientific men, and botanists have 
lost a colleague richly endowed with the qualities 
which go to make an ideal student of Nature. 
Harold Henry Welch Pearson was born at 
Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, in 1870; he was 
privately educated; after holding a teaching post 
in an Eastbourne school he entered the University 
of Cambridge as a non-collegiate student, and 
later became a member of Christ’s College, 
where he remained until his election to the Frank 
Smart studentship, which necessitated migration 
to Gonville and Caius College. His Cambridge 
career was a series of successes: in 1899 he was 
awarded the Walsingham medal for work in 
Ceylon on the vegetation of the Patanas. In 
1898 he was appointed curator of the Cambridge 
Herbarium, and in 1899 he joined the staff of 
the Kew Herbarium. In 1902 he was appointed 
professor of botany at the South African College, 
Cape Town, where he laboured with conspicuous 
success up to the time of his death. He was 
elected into the Royal Society in the present year. 
Though the double responsibilities of the pro- 
fessorship and the Botanic Garden were no light 
burden, Pearson enlisted as a trooper in a Local 
Defence corps. 
Full advantage was taken of the splendid oppor- 
tunities of exploration afforded by South Africa, 
and Pearson proved himself to be an explorer of 
the best type; he visited Damaraland four times, 
and in January of this year he wrote home from 
Windhoek after a particularly arduous journey 
undertaken with the fullest approval and support 
of General Botha. He also explored Namaqua- 
land, Bushmanland, Angola, and other regions, 
always returning with valuable booty, of which 
he made the best use both by his own researches 
and by generous gifts to institutions and other 
botanists. Pearson’s expeditions were readily 
assisted by scientific bodies, and especially by the 
Percy Sladen Trustees, whose liberal contribu- 
tions were well earned and thorouchly appre- 
ciated. His first paper (1898) dealt with the 
NO. 2455, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
21nd 
anatomy of the seedling of the Cycad Bowenia, 
and in 1899 the Linnean Society published the 
results of his field-work in Ceylon. In 1902 he 
wrote on the double pitchers of a Dischidia. 
Pearson’s most important work is on Wel- 
witschia and Gnetum; he not only greatly ex- 
tended our knowledge of these Gymnosperms, 
but with conspicuous ability demonstrated the 
nature of the “endosperm,” for which he proposed 
the term trophophyte. Pearson’s more recent 
contributions have strengthened his position on 
the vexed question of the degree of affinity of the 
Gnetales to the Angiosperms. In one of his most 
recent letters Pearson referred to the MS. of a 
promised volume on the Gnetales as almost com- 
plete. Observations on South African Cycads, 
investigations on the common maize disease 
caused by the root-parasite Striga lutea, an 
account of the Thymeleacee in the Flora of 
Tropical Africa, a paper on the internal tem- 
perature of Euphorbia and Aloe, and well-written 
descriptions of travels illustrate the wide range 
of his aetivities, 
The greatest service rendered by Pearson to 
South Africa was the part he played in the 
foundation of the National Botanic Garden, and 
it was his tactful and untiring efforts which led 
the Government to set apart about 400 acres on 
the Kirstenbosch estate, on the east side of Table 
Mountain, for a National Garden, of which he 
was appointed honorary director in 1913. 
Pearson was a botanist of many parts, and a 
man who inspired affection in an unusual degree 
by his geniality, honesty of purpose, and boyish 
enthusiasm. He recognised the almost unlimited 
possibilities of botanical and economic develop- 
ments through the Kirstenbosch Garden, and it 
is for his successors to do their part in carrying 
out the broadly conceived scheme of the first 
director. In a letter dated July, 1913, he wrote: 
“Tt will be a great burden, but it is worth carry- 
ing, even if it never falls to me to exploit its 
contents.” A. C. SEwarD. 
PROF. HENRIK MOHN, 
| gees death of Henrik Mohn, on September 12 
at Christiania, removes from the meteoro- 
logical world a very well known and popular 
figure. Born at Bergen on May 15, 1835, he had 
completed his eighty-first year. He took part in 
all international assemblies of meteorologists 
from the commencement of the series of 1873 until 
the meeting of the International Meteorological 
Committee at Rome in 1913, when he excused 
himself on account of the long journey. Shortly 
afterwards he retired from his appointment as 
director of the Norwegian Meteorological Service 
and professor in the University of Christiania, 
which he had held sirce 1866. He maintained his 
scientific activity to the end of his life. His most 
recent work was the discussion of the meteoro- 
logical observations of Amundsen’s expedition to 
the South Pole, which was published in 1915. It 
displays remarkable ingenuity in giving. a con- 
