142 H. H. W. PEARSON, F.R.S., Sc.D. 
and unused. For the purpose of a Botanic Garden it could hardly be better 
suited.” 
On October 6, 1912, after referring to a projected expedition he adds: 
“I am longing to get away for a time from this teaching grind which is 
gradually wearing away my soul — this expression probably reflects but a 
passing mood. In any case the top of the Karasberg cannot but be delight- 
ful.” 
On May 27, 1913, he reported further progress with the Garden: “I sent 
you a paper containing an account of the Botanic Garden debate [in the House 
of Assembly]. Since then Sir Lionel Phillips has kept things going and to-day 
the end has been gained.... The success is entirely due to Phillips — a man of 
extraordinary energy and enthusiasm....! am therefore to some extent 
identified with the scheme. A botanist must run it from the beginning if it 
is to be a success. At first it will be impossible to provide a salary for such 
a botanist. There is no other one who is in a position to take charge of it 
without payment. If I don’t do it the South African Botanic Garden 
collapses for the time being. Circumstances are therefore too much for me 
and, though at no little personal sacrifice, I must undertake it. It will not 
entail my giving up my own line of work (at least it shall not) but it must 
interfere with it to some extent. But my own view is that if I can establish 
a Botanic Garden here on a sound basis I shall do more for Botany than by 
writing an extra paper or two. It may not be so good for myself, but that is, 
I hope, beside the point. I have been carried on almost involuntarily and 
have persuaded myself that I am acting rightly.... Since I wrote to you the 
Council has given me a second Lecturer.” In July of the same year he wrote : 
“As to the Directorship- -there is at present no money available for a botanist 
and I can do the place a greater service by doing what little I can in an 
honorary capacity than if I became a salaried officer.... I feel that the thing 
has come upon me unsought and I have no choice but to take it up. It will 
be a burden but it is worth carrying if it never falls to me to exploit its con- 
tents.” The author of an appreciative and sympathetic article in the South 
African College Magazine in describing Pearson’s work for the National 
Garden writes : “ He never fully appreciated the value of his own enthusiasm 
and manner; and I remember the doubts which assailed him as the last 
attack — in a fight which he knew had been fought and lost many a time in 
the previous forty years — progressed and the unalloyed joy he experienced 
when at last he saw the Garden established.” 
Pearson was appointed Honorary Director and began his duties on 
August 1 , 1 913. The last time I saw him was on July 20, 1914. The Director’s 
house was nearing completion and the plant-nurseries were well stocked with 
material received from various parts of the Dominion. From a wet glen in 
which were several plants of the South African Fern Hemitelia capensis we 
