vi Obituary . — Henry Harold Welch Pearson . 
character of both the wet and dry patanas, that is, the vegetation above and 
below 4,500 ft. In the joint paper with his friend Mr. J. Parkin the 
conclusions given in the first account, which were based on field observations, 
are tested by a thorough anatomical investigation. It was found that the 
peculiarities which usually characterize plants of insolated areas are not more 
strongly developed in members of the dry flora than in the plants of the 
wet patanas — a fact probably due to the influence of the powerful monsoon 
winds, the functional activities of the roots being also lowered by the humic 
acids in the soil. The Ceylon visit introduced Pearson to a new world 
which he thoroughly enjoyed, and by his apprenticeship to field-work in the 
wider sense he qualified himself for the later expeditions in South Africa 
which he conducted with conspicuous success. 
A paper written at Kew deals with an inquiry, undertaken at the 
suggestion of Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, into the morphology and 
functions of the double pitchers of four species of Dischidia : this piece of 
work is exceedingly good considering that the material consisted entirely of 
herbarium specimens. He made full use of the time spent in the Herbarium 
to familiarize himself with the methods of systematic botany and, as the list 
of his publications shows, his output during that period was considerable. 
In later years he amply repaid the Royal Gardens by his gifts of material 
collected in South Africa. The collections sent to Kew included one of the 
finest series of succulents ever received in this country. The volume of the 
‘Botanical Magazine’ published in 1910 is dedicated to Professor Pearson, ‘as 
successful in his leadership of Botanical expeditions as he has been generous 
in distributing their fruits’. The Botanic Garden of his old University has 
also greatly benefited by his many contributions, and a word of acknow- 
ledgement is due to Mr. Lynch, the able Curator, for the skill with which he 
cultivated Welwitschia and other plants received from Pearson. 
Soon after his arrival at the Cape Pearson set himself the task of continu- 
ing the investigation of Welwitschia, so splendidly inaugurated by Sir Joseph 
Hooker. In May, 1904, he wrote from Cape Town: ‘A year and a week 
since I arrived in the land of sunshine, dust, and politics, and yet this is the 
first time I have set myself to write to you. ... I started last year with 
eleven students. This year I have twenty-two. . . . The Council is putting 
me up a splendid laboratory which I shall not be ashamed to show you 
when you come out. ... I thought of you a good deal in January last, when 
I spent two glorious days in the heart of the Damaraland desert in the 
company of the most magnificent array of flowering Welwitschias that ever 
man saw. You must know that when I was first appointed here I had 
a dream, the purport of which was that Welwitschia was delivered into my 
hands. And sure enough without any particular effort on my part I found 
myself in Welwitschia- land, and hoped to spend some weeks there. Fate, 
however, determined otherwise. The Hereros and the Germans came to 
