Horror Story Review: "The Plant-Thing" by R. G. MacReady

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The narrator’s editor sends him out investigate rumors noted scientist Professor Carter is practicing vivisection. Neighboring farmers claim to have supplied him with about 150 animals over the past four months. Representatives from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were turned away. Now it’s the press’s turn in the form of the Clarion. All he knows of the professor is that about four years earlier, he bought the old Wells place about ten miles outside of town. He built a high wall around the five-acre property and moved in with his daughter and about eight retainers. The reporter doesn’t expect to be invited in, but he knocks on the front door anyway. He’s got a thirty-foot rope to help with his entrance onto the back of the property. He wastes little time getting himself into mortal danger. The human occupants are not the threat. This is a horror story in the mold of man messing with nature/mad scientist. It has its clumsy elements, and I found the ending incomplete. Nevertheless, some aspects of the story are fun. I could not find an electronic version of this short story. _____ Title: “The Plant-Thing” Author: R. G. MacReady First published: Weird Tales July 1925 Source: ISFDB