xvi Obituary . — Henry Harold Welch Pearson. 
his work and purpose were never lost sight of, and he won his way not 
only to our hearts but also to our pockets for the big object which he 
accomplished. He was a boy among men, but a greatly respected man 
among his boys and girls at College. By none more than by his friends 
and students in South Africa is his loss deplored.’ 
Harold Pearson was a high-minded student and a loyal citizen whose 
short life was spent in the service of Science and who laboured to the 
utmost of his capacity for the good of the country of his adoption. By 
his devotion to duty and his suppression of self in his dealings with all 
sorts and conditions of men, he gained not only the affection of those with 
whom he was associated, but he exerted a very wide influence. His life 
recalls Hazlitt’s words : ‘ When the pursuit of truth has been the habitual 
study of any man’s life, the love of truth will be his ruling passion.’ He 
enriched the world by deed and example ; his pioneer work has made the 
path smooth for those who follow him, but it will be their responsibility 
and privilege to do their best to maintain, the high standard represented by 
Pearson’s work for Botany and for the common life of the Colony. As the 
author (W. Duncan Baxter) of an In Memoriam article in ‘ The Cape ’ 
truly says : ‘ The best memorial that can be raised to him is to see that 
his work at Kirstenbosch is carried on, and the National Botanic Gardens 
made what he pictured them in his mind’s eye. That is the way 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.’ 
I cannot close this inadequate account of one of the most lovable men 
it has been my good fortune to know without a word of sympathetic 
reference to the devoted wife who shared his South African life. Though 
all botanists mourn the premature death of an able colleague and many 
are the poorer for the loss of a true friend, she, whose loss is the greatest, 
may derive some consolation from the knowledge that her husband’s 
services were very widely and very sincerely appreciated. 
Bibliography. 
1898. Anatomy of the Seedling of Bowenia spectabilis , Hook. f. Ann. Bot., vol. xii, p. 475. 
1898. Apogeotropic Roots of Bowenia spectabilis , Hook. f. Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., p. 1066. 
1899. The Botany of the Ceylon Patanas. I. Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), vol. xxiv, p. 300. 
1900. Cochlearia Hobsoni, Pearson. Hooker’s leones Plantarum, vol. xxvii, pi. 2643. 
1900. Hemsley, W. Botting, and H. H. W. Pearson. Die botanischen Ergebnisse in Sven 
Hedin’s Geographisch-wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse meiner Reise in Zentralasien 1894-7. 
Petermann’s Mitteil., Erganzungsband xxviii, p. 372. 
1901, Geophila pilosa, Pears. Hooker’s leones Plantarum, vol. xxviii, pi. 2691. 
