X 
Obituary . — Henry Harold Welch Pearson. 
Reference has already been made to Pearson’s success as an explorer. 
The liberal grants from the Percy Sladen Memorial Trustees, who had 
complete confidence in his proposals, from the Royal Society, and from other 
sources led to results of exceptional importance — morphological, systematic, 
phytogeographical, and ecological. Pearson’s success was due to his tactful 
persistence in the face of obstacles, his infectious enthusiasm, a sense of 
humour, his all-round training, and keen powers of observation. On all his 
journeys he took with him Lamb’s ‘ Essays’ and generally small volumes of 
Shakespeare’s plays. 
Before the final arrangements for his most important expedition were 
complete, Pearson wrote : ‘ On Saturday night I had a long talk with 
Dernburg in his bedroom at Government House. Did you ever discuss the 
situation with a European diplomatist in his bedroom ? The [German] 
Imperial Government is most anxious that the country lying north of 
Windhuk . . . should be botanically examined with a view to its agricultural 
development. ... I at once offered to go if the Government would organize 
the expedition and take me there and bring me back again. Dernburg 
accepted the offer on the spot. I asked for no remuneration and none was 
suggested.’ Two months later he added: ‘I am not quite sure, but 
I believe that the Dernburg proposal is off.’ Shortly before leaving Cape 
Town Pearson wrote: ‘The Sladen Trustees have most kindly left me free 
to take either route from Windhuk. Unless the obstacles are serious I shall 
adhere to the Angola plan. Through Sir Donald Currie I have received 
a most cordial letter of introduction from the Portuguese Minister of Marine 
and the Colonies to the Governor-General of Angola. Furnished with this 
and with a formal letter from Sir Hely Hutchinson I am certain to receive 
every possible attention (probably to an embarrassing extent) and assistance 
from the authorities.’ He left Cape Town in November, 1908, and early in 
December reported progress from Calvinia : ‘ I have just removed the stain 
of twelve days’ travel and had a more or less civilized breakfast. The first 
stage of the trip has been fairly arduous, as we have crossed the north-east 
corner of the Karroo, which this year is nearly as arid as the German 
desert. ... I am sending nearly 300 species to Cape Town from here (you 
see I am in a fair way to become a real botanist and bundles of dried 
specimens are beginning to impress me greatly) — but seriously it is intensely 
interesting to follow the changes in the flora over a long-distance journey 
such as this.’ From Seeheum in German South-West Africa he complained 
of suffering from ‘ another bout of hospitality which is if anything more 
killing than the English. ... I estimate that since I started I have collected 
about 1,200 species, the majority of which are safely housed in Cape Town 
by this time. . . . By the way, I found living in a tent about 100 km. south 
of this place an old Irish lady who has a most vivid recollection of Galton, 
whom she saw at Rehoboth when he visited this country in the fifties. 
