1879.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



101 



grounds have often good architectiu'al preten- 

 tions, and here and there are small pieces of 

 well kept grass, with an occasional clump of 

 shrubs, or perhaps a mass of pretty tangled 

 vines. But the lot holders eventually own 

 ■everything; the rare trees are felled, most of 

 the little attempts at garden art disappear, till in 

 the end there is little left but a mass of graves 

 and grave stones ; and instead of a lovely park 

 Avhereiu even the dead may preach to us that 

 the true lesson of life is to love to improve 

 and enjoy it, we have a mass of horror into 

 which few care to penetrate but those to whom 

 it is a luxury to believe that the beautiful earth 

 is a world of woe, and that the grand climax of 

 religious faith is the conviction that man was 

 made to mourn. 



But Spring Grove is and always will be essen- 

 tially a park. It employs in Mr. A. Strauch an 

 ■eminent artist, one of the most accomplished 

 landscape gardeners in the world. A large por- 

 tion of the grounds is devoted wholly to land- 

 scape beauty, and there is not a single element 

 in landscape gardening — earth sky, trees, or 

 water — that is not pressed into service. Surely if 

 it is a worthy aim so to live that the world shall 

 he better for our having come into it, those who 

 are to die and take their last long sleep in Spring 

 Grove, will have pleasant dreams about the 

 beauty they helped to create above them, and 

 share in the enjoyment of those who wander 

 about their graves. For in this cemetery every 

 lot holder has a share in the cemetery park. 

 The surplus over actual expenses is invested, so 

 that by the time the whole ground is occupied 

 there will be a fund sufficient to maintain the 

 ])eautiful landscape garden in perpetuity. In 

 this way over $50,000 have been already set 

 aside. We have l^eard it stated this plan will 

 not find general favor, that people generally 

 like to have exclusive control over their separate 

 burial lots ; but the popularity of the Spring 

 Grove plan is in no better way attested than by 

 the fact that lots to the value of $29,000 were 

 sold last year. 



It is to be regretted that in a work like Mr. 

 Robinson's, if it were thought desirable to refer 

 at all to American cemeteries, more justice 

 should not be done to Spring Grove, — not in any 

 ^vay to detract from the merits of Laurel Hill as 

 an admirable pioneer in the advance towards 

 more rational modes of sepulture but as un- 

 doubtedly the most successful example of a 

 landscape cemetery in the world. 



Japanese Autumn Scenery. — By and by 

 when the tourist steps through Japan as he now 

 does through America, he may not think our 

 country the only one to admire for its gorgeous 

 Autumn scenery. This is what we learn of Au- 

 tumn color in Japan from the Tokio Timea. 



"The time for leaves to change their color has 

 come. This change being premonitory of Win- 

 ter, gardens and groves cannot be said to wear 

 the same cheering aspect as in the blossoming 

 time of Spring, nevertheless they surpass in 

 grandeur; and there probably are few who take 

 such great pains as the .Japanese to have a fine 

 display of leaves of various hues at this period of 

 the year. A sight-seer would be well repaid for 

 a visit on a sunny afternoon to the garden of 

 plants, (Shokubutsu Yen) at Koishi-kawa. The 

 mere writing of one's name and address in a 

 book, kept by the momban, is all that is neces- 

 sary to obtain admission into the grounds, which 

 evidently were the site of the yashiki of some 

 daimio in the days past. For the first few hun- 

 dred yards the garden is laid out neatly with 

 foreign and native plants, but these at present 

 are for the most part leafless. The pass then 

 goes along a plum orchard and takes a turn to 

 the left afterwards descending to a pond below. 

 It is at this place that the most splendid sight is 

 seen. Bushes of dodan, a kind of shrub, trim- 

 med into various shapes, are dressed in ci'imson 

 leaves, intermingled with those of the maple, 

 generally of the same color, though in some cases 

 slightly tinted with russet. The Icho (jinko) ap- 

 pears among them in gold, and above are seen 

 the lofty pine and oak in deep green. All 

 these bright colors reflecting upon the water in 

 the pond make a peculiar effect hardly describ- 

 able with a pen. In one word, the hillside ap- 

 pears as though it was ablaze. Other gardens in 

 Tokio are not less attractive, and in particular, 

 the noted maples in the grounds of the temple 

 of Benten, at Oji, are now exceedingly fine." 



Parks as Educational Institutions. — 

 One of the Philadelphia newspapers recently 

 had the following paragraph : 



"It is also contemplated publishing a book 

 which will contain the Latin and common name 

 of each plant and tree, which will be accom- 

 panied with a map of the grounds, the various 

 plats marked in different colors, corresponding 

 to those placed at the bottom of the map, and 

 reference to which will give the name of the 

 plant or tree the visitor may wish to examine, 

 with its location and other points of interest. It 



