32S 



DESIGNS FOR MONUMENTS AND RURAL TADLETS. 



•' I shall always retain tlie remembrance of the 

 scira (i'ltaciilitmi .' — of those piganlic rocks, pileil 

 one upon another, anil forming a mass of several 

 miles in circuiufcrenee. 



Tlie outermost housi's of the Cidade de Ouro 

 Preto, the capital of the mining ilistrict, are pic- 

 turesiiucly grouped at the base of this mountain. 

 The approach is injposing, anil when the traveller 

 ventures within this lal)yrinth, fornieil by a multi- 

 tude of paths, seemingly without any outlet, he is 

 soon quite isolated from the world, and arriving 

 half-way, after a tedious ascent of about ten hours, 

 he sees in the west a wooded country, where the 

 wandering Coroados and But icudos are encamped; 

 while towards the east he seems forever to bid 

 adieu to the last traces of civilization, even to 

 those settlements nearest to the desert. Ah ! the 

 remembrance of one such a scene is indeed an 

 epoch in one's life. In what bold relief it stands 

 out from the every day points which have hereto- 

 fore marked its course ! From the vast bay at the 

 entrance of which the proud Rio-de-.faneiro bathes 

 its feet, up to the frowning peaks which preside 

 over it, in the midst of its villas — amid the depths 

 of its palm-groves, and among that reckless popu- 

 lation assembled from every part of old Euroi)e, 

 here to seek fortune and happiness — and again 

 from these regions even to the Rio-Pard<> ! What a 

 succession of emotions, at the same time fearful 

 and pleasing — what a crowd of wild and thrilling 

 sensations till our souls, and take possession of us, 

 j)Oor Europeans, born in the midst of fogs and sur- 

 rounded by tame fields and gardens ! Astonish- 

 ment and admiration bewilder us, whether we raise 

 our eyes to those mountains, or cast them down to- 

 wards those valleys enriched with the most luxu- 

 riant vegetation ! There Erythrinas, which rival 

 our oaks in height, and, although as yet without 

 leaves, covered with millions of full-blown, glow- 

 ing flowers, which appear, at a distance, like im- 

 mense globes of fire; and gigantic Jacaraudas, 

 blending their innumerable blue blossoms with the 

 azure of the heavens. Here also is the Bignonia 

 venusta, with its garlands of orange colored flow- 

 ers, binding and stifling in its thousand folds, trees 

 of the first magnitude! The Parkia, crowning 

 with its ample diadem the IMelastomias, the Bo- 

 ginvillieas, the Eranciscies, those brilliant plants, 

 so much prized in our hot houses; in the distant 

 horizon are seen the environs of the Cidade de 

 Barbacena, built in the most picturesque manner, 

 in the midst of a forest of Chili pine (Draucarias.) 

 Here is the Velozia, the pride of Brazil, crowning 

 the naked rocks; among the grasses is seen the 

 fabulous Virgularin, the useful Gompkrena tubero- 

 sa, the fugitive Lisianthus; there, the wild and 

 resiless ostrich feeds in safety ; more distant still, 

 at the top of some withered tree, the cry of the 

 Ferrador vibrates in the air, recalling the sound of 

 the anvil struck by the- hammer; there are besides 

 the poetical looking Ranchos, or rude inns, afiTord- 

 ing a lodging to the caravans, who here refresh 

 themselves after the fatigues of tiie day, seeking 

 diversion in cards, or listening to the sounds of the 

 mandolina; in short, in these distant countries all 

 is new, all is strange to the native of Europe! As 

 for me, poor solitary traveller, when night came 



on, and I was quietly cradled in my hammock 

 swung between two rocks, in Itaculumi, how 

 proud, how happy I was! To sec myself so near 

 the heavens, and ])ossessing for a palace the most 

 majestic sites of the earth ! Myriads of the Sophro- 

 7iitii grandiflora luxuriated around me ; that 

 charming little orchideous plant, whose aliundant 

 blossoms, tapestried with puri)le a vast |)erpenilic- 

 ular rock, more than eighty feet high. Its little 

 pseudo-bulbs closely j)ressed against each other, 

 seemed to form but one mass or rather one single 

 plant! What hot house in Euro])e could contain 

 this specimen of the marvellous ^egetation of the 

 tropics! 



Since, in our cold and bleak Europe, we are re- 

 duced to cultivate only pitiful samples, let us at 

 least endeavor to render them agreeable to the 

 e3-e, let us make the miniatures perfect; and since 

 variety must, with us, stand in the jilace of such 

 vast jirodigality of numbers, let us arrange artisti- 

 cally upon the white bark of the Birch tree, our 

 little Sophro7titis, truly the giants of the genus, 

 when we consider the great size of the blossoms. 

 To speak thus, is to complain of the small size of 

 those of Sophronitis cernua, which notwithstand- 

 ing have also peculiar charms of their own. 



Designs for Monuments and Rural Tablets, 

 adapted to Rural Cemeteries, Churchyards, 

 Churches, and Chapels. With a preliminary 

 essay on the laying out, planting and managing 

 of Cemeteries, and the Improvement of Church- 

 yards, on the basis of Loudon's work. By J. J. 

 Smith. New-York, Bartlett & Welford. 1846. 

 4to., with many anastatic plates. 



In reviews lately of Martin's beautiful 

 work, Greemvood Illustrated, we noticed the 

 importance which the subject of Rural Ce- 

 meteries has obtained in the United States,' 

 and commended that work for its many- 

 beautiful features. The present work is 

 one just issued, and which has strong 

 claims on our attention in a more prac- 

 tical point of view. 



Now that rural cemeteries are being form- 

 ed in the environs of almost every large 

 tOAvn in the Union, some works on the prin- 

 ciples that should be observed in laying out 

 and keeping them, and especially some 

 guide to the seeker after designs for monu- 

 ments and mural objects is greatly needed. 

 Many an error that an uninformed commit- 

 tee would readily enough fall into, and 

 which might, perhaps, afterwards be irre- 



