A MEMOIR. 33 



enables them to catch. With a friend, Mr. Henderson 

 made a most thorough and exhaustive experiment in his 

 greenhouses with four hundred plants of the Carolina Fly 

 Trap, one half of which were so protected by fine wire net- 

 ting, that while they had all the necessary light and air, it 

 was impossible for them to receive any sustenance except 

 that derivedf rom the atmosphere and soil. The remainder 

 of the plants were not only regularly "fed" by hand with 

 flies and other insects, but were also so exposed, that any 

 insects in the greenhouse were liable to be entrapped by 

 them. The result was that the most careful comparison 

 failed to show the slightest difference between those fed 

 with insects and those that were not so fed, which satisfied 

 him that if the plants digested the insects placed in the 

 leaf -traps, the food was in no way beneficial. Without 

 expressing any opinion as to whether these plants do, or 

 do not flourish on an animal diet, the published reports 

 of the various scientists who have investigated the sub- 

 ject, clearly indicate, that none of their experiments 

 were comparative. We think, therefore, that we can with 

 propriety volunteer the opinion that such conclusions 

 lose half their force, because the tests were not corapara- 

 tive. And we further believe that in this instance most 

 people will be apt to think, that the clear headed gardener 

 who made no pretentions to scientific lore, conducted his 

 experiments on more practical and logfical lines than did 

 the eminent men with whose conclusions he could not 

 agree. 



We also find him disputing Mr. Darwin's theory of 

 what he called " Graft- Hybrids"; this naturalist citing 

 a number of instances where seemingly there was an 

 amalgamation of the stock and graft. Mr. Henderson's 

 views are set forth at some length in an article he 

 read before the New York Horticultural Society, in 1881, 

 entitled, "Popular Errors and Scientific Dogmas in 

 Horticulture." Among other arguments he advanced to 

 refute Mr. Darwin's theory he instanced, " that during 

 the past quarter of a century, millions upon millions of 

 Bartlett pears and Baldwin apples have been grafted 



