THE ANNUAL MEETING. 129 



The selection of the species to be planted for this purpose will be governed 

 very much by the size and situation of the lot, and also by the character of the 

 soil. They should always be of a permanent or long-lived species. Where 

 space permits they may be large and noble, such as the oaks or elms. The 

 former will even be favorites for such planting. In low grounds and near 

 water the willow (S. oabylonica) has always been a favorite funereal tree, but 

 though poetically affiliated with the tomb, few trees are more unsuitable than 

 this foreigner from a milder climate, because this willow is short-lived and 

 easily broken by storms. It is likely to be entirely supplanted by the Wisconsin 

 weeper, which resists the northern winds. For smaller lots we have many trees 

 or shrubs that may be used. 



Without attempting to give you an extended catalogue of trees suitable for 

 such planting, your attention is directed to the extremely formal character of 

 some that should be avoided, because their free use becomes very tiresome. 

 As an illustration you have been referred to the typical grave-yard tree, the 

 funebral cypress, which you can only behold in pictures of burying places on 

 the Mediterranean. But we are in danger still if we adopt the stiff, formal, 

 and erect species of the junipers and yews, whose chief recommendation con- 

 sists iu the fact that they occupy little space ; but neither do they fill the eye 

 of taste. Many small and slow-growing kinds of evergreens are not open to 

 this objection, notably the yews, the box, and still further south many broad- 

 leaved evergreens. 



You may think we demand too much for the modern cemetery. It is true 

 that a previous generation might have been shocked by some of the propositions 

 now presented, and some tender hearts of the present decade may possibly be 

 startled, but we are progressing. Who now desires to be embalmed after death 

 and stowed away, even in a pyramid of Titanic proportions on the banks of the 

 Nile, or to be thrust alongside the dead of preceding generations into the cata- 

 combs of Rome or Paris, or even to be interred in the crowded church-yards 

 beside the old cathedrals of Europe, much less beneath the tiling of their floors? 

 Even the historic and almost sacred precincts of Westminster Abbey present few 

 attractions as a burial place for us. With strong good sense the American 

 people, in the light of sanitary science, have forbidden interments in such 

 places, and indeed, within municipal corporations; the graveyard of the past 

 century is no longer used. The rural cemetery is everywhere popular. Nor 

 are the requisitions contained in the ten propositions here recited a mere fancy 

 sketch; they are to a great extent a portrait of what already exist in our own 

 laud. 



Thanks to the talent of the superintendent and to the good sense and liber- 

 ality of a directory who sustain him, we have all this as a reality. Where, 

 do you ask? At the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, which possesses the finest rural 

 cemetery of this or any other land. That cemetery, my friends, which has 

 become a model for very many others in various parts of our country, and 

 which is highly complimented by visitors from abroad, is the legitimate out- 

 growth of a horticultural society. 



Hoping that this digression from pomology will not be considered an intru- 

 sion upon the routine of your meeting, you are asked to accept my sincere 

 thanks for your patient attention. 



At the close of Dr. Warder's paper a communication was read from Dr. 

 Frieze of the University, inviting the society to visit the various departments 

 17 



