139 
H. H. W. PEARSON, F.R.S., ScD. 
of the idea of a relationship in 1909 but I have not given it up yet. The more 
we know about the group the more difficult it seems to become.” In a later 
letter he made an interesting suggestion about the comparison of the Gnetales 
and the Bennettitales. “ I am bothered by my ignorance of Bennettites. 
I have never seen a section of a flower and the idea I have been harbouring 
for some time is very probably absurd. It is about that interseminal scale, 
the leal nature of which, so far as I can make out, no one seems to understand. 
In my ignorance I have wondered whether it is really a ‘scale’ at all.” He 
suggests that the interseminal scale “ may be something of the nature of the 
thick cushion of Gnetum....If you have a large number of ovules arising in 
crowded whorls or spirals from an elongated conical axis, and sunk in the 
tissue of the axis as are the young ovules of Gnetum africdnum, it seems to me 
that transverse and longitudinal sections might give very much the appearance 
of such sections of Bennettites.” 
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, phyto- 
geographical, and ecological. Pearson’s success was due to his tactful per- 
sistence in the face of obstacles, his infectious enthusiasm, a sense of humour, 
his all-round training, and keen powers of observation. 
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 organise 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 ol 
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 Helv 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 leported 
progress from Calvinia “I have just removed the stain of 12 days tiavel 
and had a more or less civilised breakfast. The first stage of the trip has 
