DOYENNE D'ALENCON PEAR. 



A judicious selection and apportionment of evergreens is essential ; their partial 

 gloom is favorable to contemplation, and yet they afford a cheerfulness, in winter, 

 highly agreeable. As in the material of monuments, and in inclosures, we are 

 to provide for the future, to prepare a sylvan shade in which our successors may 

 walk, and ruminate on the deeds and men of a former time, we should suit our 

 plantations to the objects around us, and yet have the eye prominently fixed on 

 what our plantations will become. The landscape gardener is nowhere so much 

 required as in the laying out of a large cemetery. He knows, or ought to know, 

 to what height each tree may be expected to attain ; his eye should look with 

 critical judgment, to the future more than the present, in selecting a tree for 

 yonder knoll, or to border the I'iver, stream, and lake. He must also remember 

 his climate, the soil, and what particular trees flourish best in them ; 



" Or sucli as, by experience once approv'd, 

 Are found adopted by the climes tliey lov'd. 

 All other foreign plants with caution try, 

 Kor aim at infinite variety." 



So says the poet, and yet we highly recommend variety, though an " infinite" 

 variety should be avoided. It is an error, in planting a large cemetery, to employ 

 only the trees that succeed in the immediate neighborhood ; even in a well-wooded 

 site, where, to the eye of the citizen, there is shade in abundance, and perhaps to 

 spare, a judicious addition of hardy trees and shrubs, with a foreign air, are of 

 great importance. Thousands of persons who visit Laurel Hill do not define this 

 source of gratification, though they are sensible of something novel and pleasing. 

 Had they been accustomed to the study of foliage, they would at once ascertain 

 that they were surrounded, not only by the beautiful in form, but by the rare ; 

 they, perhaps, carry away with them an impression that it is the monuments, and 

 the river, and the general views, that have so struck their minds ; but the element 

 of variety in the trees was still one of the charms. We are planting, in this age, 

 for posterity, among whose countless throngs there will be a larger proportion of 

 educated observers than there is now. These burial places, too, have a perma- 

 nency of character that no other spots can aspire to, and here the next genera- 

 tions will expect to find examples of well-grown trees from which they can form 

 some ideas of what they should plant themselves, in grounds of their own ; the 

 time taken to attain certain heights will here be studied. It is, in fact, as leaders 

 of public taste that we look upon public cemeteries as of much importance. One 

 can form a tolerably correct idea of the neighboring community, by seeing the 

 condition of the best cemetery of a city ; the evidences of the cultivation of the 

 people will here be displayed, and judged of accordingly. 



We have exhausted the space designed to name the trees that we deem suitable 

 for the purposes requested, and must postpone to another date some further 

 remarks on the subject. 



DOYENNE D'ALENCON TEAR.* 



Among the European winter or late pears, perhaps we have no better than the 

 Doyenne D'Alencon (or new Easter Beurre, Doyenne D'Hivcr Nouveau). Its 

 qualities have been fully tested in many States, and prove to be uniformly good. 



Tree, a fine, handsome grower, succeeding well on both stocks, quince or pear ; 

 a good bearer, and requiring but little pruning. Frvit, obovate, pyriform, medium 

 size, heavy and solid. Stem, about one inch in length, medium size, and swollen 



* See Frontispiece. 



