133 
H. H. W. PEARSON, F.R.S., Sc.D. 
Writing from Kew after Iris appointment to the South African chair he 
said : “I have always been fond of teaching. I even liked it when we made 
our ‘Polysiphonia’ excursions at Eastbourne. I have had very valuable 
experience here for which I believe I am the better. I certainly know more 
of systematic, economic, and administrative work than when I left Cambridge 
and if I have become a bit rusty in some of the other branches I think the 
defects will not be difficult to remedy.” His subsequent career demonstrated 
the value of his early training. He was always thoughtful of others, and 
expected those associated with him to do their share not only in teaching 
but in the investigation of the numerous problems awaiting solution. In a 
letter asking for the names of possible men for an assistantship he added, 
He must do research work for which he will have as much time as I have.” 
At one time when the financial outlook in Cape Colony was far from bright 
and the College was compelled to reduce the Staff and the stipends of Pro- 
fessors, and because family affairs in England required attention, he seriously 
thought of returning to England. He was an applicant for the Botanical 
chair at Leeds : “ My disappointment with regard to the Leeds post has been 
a thing of the past for some weeks.... That they should insist on seeing a man 
before appointing him is obviously reasonable and were I on an appointment 
committee I should take the same line.... As long as I am here I can at least 
do spade work in research.” (July 30, 1907.) 
Pearson’s first published paper deals with the anatomy of the seedling of 
the Queensland Cycad Bowenia, a straightforward^ piece of work carried out 
in the Cambridge Laboratory and undertaken, as I well remember, with 
characteristic keenness. He was always specially interested in the Cycads 
and contributed many important additions to our knowledge of the South 
African representatives of the family, not only directly by his own observations 
in the field but by stimulating others more favourably situated geographically 
than he was for making regular records bearing on the phenomena connected 
with pollination, and by sending material to England. “I have to-day,” he 
wrote on June 11, 1906, “got a little more light on the pollination question. 
One of my helpers, a lady living in the Native Territories, sends me a lot of 
notes she made on the growth of the male cone of Encephalartos villosus 
which are of great interest in this connection.” She noticed a horrible smell 
when the sporophylls were open and caught several beetles. “ Peringuey 
-has identified the beast; he says it belongs to what is considered to be the 
most ancient group of the Coleoptera — which sounds fascinating but may of 
course mean nothing. Excuse this long scrawl. People here don t care 
much about these things and I must inflict them on somebody. In a later 
letter he spoke of evidence of insect-pollination in Encephalartos Fredericr- 
Guilielmi : “the more I see of the wool-enveloped cones the more impossible 
it seems that it can be pollinated by any other agency. J he cones are all 
