been laid out with carriage roads and walks; and the planting of it has been commenced according to the following method:

Sections of ground eight feet square and forty feet apart, have been laid off along the margins of the principal avenues, and devoted to the planting of single trees. These trees are set out by the Corporation, and will remain under their perpetual care and control. It is designed to introduce here, every tree, native and foreign, that is suitable and hardy. All these are to be classified according to their respective families. Evergreens are to be employed here chiefly to separate the different groups of deciduous trees. As there is a large available space near the entrance-gates, it is proposed to adorn this with specimens of every known species of conifer.

It is believed that a cemetery embellished according to some general plan like this, will possess a character which it would not be likely to attain, if the work of planting it were left to individual zeal and taste. Not only will there be shade trees along the carriage-ways, but they will be such as possess a peculiar interest to the botanist and the admirer of arboricultural beauty. As these young trees approach maturity, they will more than make good the loss of the old and decaying patriarchs of the forest. They will also be somewhat equally distributed over the entire surface of the grounds, instead of being set here and there, in clumps and patches, according to the fancy of lot owners. We mention this simply as one among many methods for planting the public grounds of a cemetery. Doubtless, others equally good might be proposed.

Let us now add a few words upon the embellishment of private lots. And here, it is first in importance to obtain a smooth surface of grass. This has almost every excellence to recommend it. It is a simple and natural species of ornamentation; it distinguishes the spot with an air of refinement and culture; it is something which the poor can enjoy as well as the rich; it lasts all the year, and for many years. Yet such a turf is seldom found ready made. Trenching, enriching, and grading the soil, sowing it with suitable grasses, or covering it at once with fine sod, are indispensable to secure a really beautiful lawn, which can only be kept in good order by frequent mowings and rollings.

It may be repeated here, that large-growing trees should not be planted in private lots. The space is designed for interments and monuments, and nothing should be allowed to interfere with that primary use. How absurd, then, the frequent practice of crowding a half dozen maples and pines into a plot of ground twenty or thirty feet square! To say nothing of the net-work of roots which must soon fill the soil, the branches will spread over and injuriously shade the monuments, and the grass and shrubs beneath, beside obstructing the adjacent paths and private lots. If any one insists on planting his little plot with trees, we would advise him to use only those of moderate growth. Evergreens are intrinsically appropriate for burial grounds, and have always been associated with such places. Yet, even of these the number should be small, and the trees such as never become large. Perhaps the commonest if not the greatest fault in the planting of cemetery lots lies just here. Six or eight evergreen trees are often set, where two would be enough; and pines, spruce, and balsam-firs are used where the juniper, arbor-vitae, and yew would be much better. It is surprising that some noted landscape gardeners should recommend such trees for this purpose. As well plant oaks in flower-pots! Shrubs are a more suitable adornment of lots than trees. They can be kept within narrow limits, and when necessary can easily be removed.

It is generally conceded that flowers are an appropriate embellishment of the grave. The custom of strewing and planting them there, is almost as ancient as the tomb itself. The epitaph written for Sophocles' grave-stone indicates this usage: Wind gentle evergreen to form a shade Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid, Sweet ivy, wind thy boughs and intertwine With blushing roses and the clustering vine; So shall thy lasting leaves, with beauty hung, Prove a fit emblem of the days he sung.

Virgil points to the custom as prevalent in his day:

Manibus date lilia plenis,

Purpureos spargam flores.

VOL. XXII.

40

The early Christians observed the same usage. It has long been the practice, in some parts of Wales, to decorate the grave with flowers, denoting, in a well understood floral language, the age of the deceased; the violet, the rose, and the rue being employed to represent the three different stages of life. Shakspeare's familiar lines illustrate the same custom : With fairest flowers,

While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
The azured hairbell, like thy veins; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine; whom not to slander,
Outsweeten'd not thy breath.

Appropriate and expressive as flowers are, it is yet questionable whether much space should be given to their culture in a cemetery lot. When this is done it conflicts with the spirit of repose which should ever prevail there, and suggests the idea of a garish floral exhibition. Bring hither the flowers, but let them be few in number, and unpretending in color and size. The daisy and violet, flowers that all hearts love, what can be better?

It is perhaps impossible now to change the prevalent custom of surrounding burial-lots with fences, chains, and hedges. But obviously, these guards are not needed to protect the monuments and graves from injury by man or beast; for any one disposed to mar them can do so in spite of such enclosures, and cattle are never allowed to range in a well-ordered cemetery. In the fitly chosen words of another, "It cannot be recommended that bin-like, unsightly structures, or hard iron palisades should surround the lots appropriated to individuals or families. Such close, unrural circumvallations, with their pickets, padlocks, and paint, have an unsocial expression, looking as if neighbors were suspicious of each other even in their graves." Why not indicate the boundaries of lots simply by small granite or marble posts at the four corners, raised an inch or two above the sod, or by a slight elevation of the surface of the lot itself above the surrounding soil?

Our subject would seem incompletely presented without a

few words touching monuments and their inscriptions. What is the use of such memorials? say some; we do not need them to remind us of our beloved friends, and they cannot benefit the departed. But then they testify to our respect and love for the lost, and are eminently due to their virtues. To erect them is profitable to our own hearts, and the sight of them. benefits the beholder. And for this purpose, it is not enough to heap up a grassy mound, or to set a rude and nameless stone to mark their grave. True affection is not so easily satisfied. She scorns everything like a niggardly economy, and would indulge the luxury of bearing some generous testimony to the memory of the dead. Yet, on the other hand, mere ostentation should be avoided. It is a shallow grief that would display itself; it is vanity calling attention to the deeds of the living as well as of the dead. It awakens no sympathy; nay, it degrades those we profess to honor. Men will walk past the huge and showy monument, with the trifling words, "This must have cost a great deal of money; what vain mortal lies here!" whereas, the little hillock and simple headstone which mark the grave of a child will awaken their tenderest emotions. Nothing seems more beautiful than that lowly mound, with its myrtle and violets watered by a mother's tears. It is an excellent general rule, that a "monument should betray no desire to exhibit great costliness, and no endeavor to avoid a reasonable expense."

There should be an obvious fitness in the style of monuments to the age and condition of those for whom they are erected. What would be suitable for a king, or statesman, or eminent philanthropist, would hardly be appropriate for a child, or any other person in private life. A great marble effigy piled to the sky, and bedecked with carving and gilding, simply because the occupant of the grave beneath or his friends had money enough to build it, is vulgar in the extreme.

Not least important, is the durability of monuments. The best American marbles are perishable, and even the finest Italian, which in southern Europe stand for centuries unharmed, under our harsher skies soon corrode. Granite, sienite, and some other of the older rocks are very durable, and for

plain, massive structures, answer a good purpose. They do not, however, admit of carving, and lettering, and polishing as well as the marbles. Some of our sandstones promised, for a time, to answer all the requirements of a perfect material for monuments, yet experience begins to find them wanting in durability. The marbles of Italy, and the granite of Scotland, though not perfect, are yet, all things considered, our best stones for mortuary sculptures. Doubtless, bronze will ere long be more extensively used for these purposes than it is at present.

Public sentiment does not seem fully decided as to the expediency of constructing vaults for family tombs in cemeteries. It must be admitted that serious objections lie against them. The ample space afforded by our rural burial-places precludes the necessity of crowding numerous bodies into one catacomb. So far as the healthfulness of the living is concerned, surely the common grave, where the dust is soon resolved to its kindred dust, has the preference. May not the family-tie be as well represented in the burial-lot as in the tomb? And if it is desirable that our last resting-place should be attractive and consoling to survivors, not repulsive and gloomy, then, verily, the simple grave, crowned with its appropriate monument, is better than the most costly and imposing charnel-house.

Objection is sometimes made to the use of certain ancient symbolical monuments and emblematic inscriptions which have been introduced into modern cemeteries,-such, for instance, as the broken column, the inverted torch, the winged globe, the serpent with its tail in its mouth, &c. The first two of these are beautiful designs, as almost everything Grecian is, but are they appropriate for us? Greece had no Bible, and therefore had little knowledge of the truths which are our instruction and hope. It were not strange that she should represent death by such gloomy emblems. But when a good man dies, we know that the column is not shattered, nor the lamp of life put out. The column is ended

to terminate it, and

just where the all-wise Architect saw fit the lamp burns on with a brighter flame. It has been well said, "that those who will use the gloomy hieroglyphics of a perished