137 
H. H. W. PEARSON, F.R.S., Sc.D. 
January 11, 1916, from the Headquarters of the Union Forces: “I arrived 
here to-day after a rather arduous journey of five weeks duration through 
what is botanically an exceedingly interesting country. In the course of It, 
I have seen what I have long wished to see, viz. the edge of the Welwitschia 
desert. In fact I have been able to trace the change in the flora from the 
Kalahari plateau right into the desert. Until my collections are worked out 
I cannot quite see whither I am being led, but I think I can now more or less 
co-ordinate many odd facts I have been accumulating in the course of these 
journeys and at least show the relation between the desert flora and those 
surrounding it — The work this time has meant a journey through some most 
difficult places. Both my waggons broke, though fortunately we were able 
to bring them both to the end of the 410 mile journey.. ..On another occasion 
we had to travel all one night to reach the next water and in the course of it 
we crossed the same rocky river-bed no less than 20 times.... However it is 
something to feel that one has been through it and has brought everything 
except 2 out of the team of 30 donkeys to the end of the journey I asked 
one of the Bastard Hottentots who has now been under German government 
for years what he thought of the Germans. He said they are ‘the worstest 
people under the sun’ — and the Bastard has some reason for thinking so.” 
In a letter to Prof. Herdman (published in Nature, March 2, 1916) written 
after his return to Cape Town, on January 28, Pearson referred to his 
journey through the semi-independent territory of the Bastard Hottentots, 
adding “ No German dare venture into it, but when the people found I was 
English they could not do enough for me.” 
Perhaps the most interesting of the many results of his researches on 
Welwitschia is the discovery of the nature of the “endosperm.” “ I am now 
more than ever certain that the plant [Welwitschia] stands at the top of a 
series — I fear on a giddy pinnacle whose sides are so steep that there is no 
telling how it got there.” In a later letter he says : “ I am nearly converted 
to your view of the possible relationship between the Gnetaceae and Angio- 
sperms. The Welwitschia endosperm has quite altered my point of view. 
I am going to try and prove that the Welwitschia endosperm is homologous 
with that of the Angiosperm and further that it belongs neither to the game- 
tophyte nor sporophyte generation but is a structure sui generis....! must 
get hold of Gnetum africanum. If I can’t get the money for the whole trip 
of which I have sent you an outline scheme... I hope I shall at least be able 
to obtain say £100 to enable me to go to Quetta where the Gnetum grows. 
A substantial grant from the Trustees of the Percy Sladen Memorial fund 
enabled him to carry out the scheme in 1908 — 09. 
In the earlier stages of development the embryo-sac of Welwitschia con- 
tains numerous free nuclei : this condition is followed by partial septation 
which produces a tissue of multinucleate compartments. In the upper pait 
11—2 
