A MEMOIR. 37 



peared, and, although he subsequently wrote more than 

 ever, he never had a recurrence of that trouble. He 

 was one of the most rapid penmen we have ever known, 

 and when he wrote comparatively slowly, his penmanship 

 was really beautiful, and had an individuality of its own 

 so marked, that of the millions of letters received during 

 the past forty years, we cannot recall more than a dozen 

 instances in which the writing in any way resembled 

 his. His hands were finely shaped, and pen or pencil 

 he always held in the orthodox way as delineated on 

 the covers of copy books. 



Mr. Henderson was not only an abstainer from liquor, 

 but tobacco in any form he never touched. He was very 

 regular in his habits, and simple in his tastes. Up to the 

 close of his life he made it a rule to spend from three to 

 four hours every day in the open air. All this un- 

 doubtedly enabled him to perform the enormous amount 

 of work he accomplished. He was a very rapid walker 

 and for short distances, a fast runner. Before the iron 

 gates were put on the ferry boats plying between Jersey 

 City and New York, he was always one of the first men 

 off the boat ; and when vergfing on three score years and 

 ten, he moved so rapidly that he would overtake most 

 pedestrians between the ferry-slip and his stores in New 

 York, a distance of only three blocks. 



While we know that industrious men are by no means 

 rare, the remarkable feature of Peter Henderson's indus- 

 try was, that it was always accompanied by a wonderful 

 rapidity of movement, whether of brain or body, and 

 in this respect it was unusual. His rapidity and ac- 

 curacy of decision were remarkable, and yet while capa- 

 ble of grasping large outlines of work or enterprises, he 

 paid an attention to all details that was as painstaking 

 as it was indefatigable. 



In horticultiire, either here or abroad, in certain respects 

 he had no prototype. The annals of the profession may 

 be searched in vain to find where any one man attained 

 the same degree of eminence which Peter Henderson 

 secured at one and the same time, in three distinct 



