i3 7 o.] PLANTS AS SANITARY AGENTS. 195 



" Now they are scarcely known, 

 And rarely in our borders may you meet 

 The tall larch sighing in the burying-place, 

 Or willow trailing low its boughs to hide 

 The gleaming marble. Naked rows of graves 

 And melancholy ranks of monuments 

 Are seen instead." 



On this point Mr Ingram remarks as follows : — "There is something 

 more than sentiment in the custom, observed from remote ages, of 

 planting trees in our graveyards and cemeteries. Trees are quickeners 

 of decay — are the scavengers provided by nature for absorbing that 

 which is corrupt in the ground, and quickening it into the life that 

 gladdens our eyes in summer-time in green leaves and bright flowers : 

 who would not rather that this ' mortal coil,' bereft of the life that 

 gave it power, should reappear in verdure of the stately tree, the 

 Cedar, the Pine, or the Oak 1 How much better than to contaminate 

 the earth, or to poison the water-spring 1 The ancient Egyptians sought 

 to perpetuate the names and famous deeds of their great men by em- 

 balming their bodies, and placing them in almost impenetrable tombs. 

 What have they gained but that destruction which nature has ordained, 

 and which, though protracted, is nevertheless inevitable 1 Who knows 

 or cares for the voiceless mummy 1 The men of ancient Pome destroyed 

 their mighty dead by fire, and reverently placed their ashes in urns and 

 tombs of sculptured marble, putting with the relics of their friends a 

 small tear-bottle or lachrymatory. If we continue to follow the cus- 

 tom of our forefathers, and return dust to dust, let us not omit to 

 plant a tributary tree. Why should not our disused churchyards be 

 planted 1 I am sure many persons would esteem it a privilege to be 

 permitted to plant a tree on the grave of a dear friend. If this were 

 done, our churchyards in time would be one shady grove, and would 

 be so purified as no longer to be sources of disease to the living 

 congregated around them." 



What is here indicated is only a small part of the functions dis- 

 charged by plants as sanitary agents. We have simply endeavoured 

 to indicate Mr Ingram's line of argument, and to a small extent his 

 conclusions. A large range of study is opened up to the intelligent 

 observer, involving the whole area of vegetable physiology. In yield- 

 ing food for the animal kingdom the plant is scarcely less a sanitary 

 agent. One of the main objects of the plant is to feed the animal. 

 This it does with various forms of vegetable matter in different climes 

 and countries ; and it provides for each herbivorous and carnivorous 

 race those peculiar forms on which it best loves, because best fitted, 

 to feed. 



