JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



PLANTS FOR DECORATING A GRAVE. 



FTEN has an appeal been made to tlie Editors 

 of " our Journal " for an opinion upon this 

 subject, and they have answered briefly, as 

 occasion required, in their replies " To Cor- 

 respondents," but I wish to offer some com- 

 ments more generally applicable. 



Nothing better can be said of anyone than 

 that he or she always does what is fitting, 

 and no more depreciatory observation of any- 

 one can be made than that he or she rarely 

 does things as they ought to be done. I knew a gentleman, 

 long since dead, who insisted on his bride putting on a 

 black petticoat beneath her wedding dress, but this was 

 not more incongruous than the pots of gay flowers which 

 I have seen about many a grave. Far be it from me to 

 say that they were not placed there by the hands of truly- 

 loving ones, but gay flowers are not fitting accompaniments 

 of a grave, though not unsuitable to a ball-room — no one 

 would wear at a funeral the costume worn at the deceased's 

 wedding. 



When one we have loved, and will never cease from 

 loving, is consigned to the grave, our grief, if deep, would 

 no more permit us to consider with what we should de- 

 corate that grave, than we should think of giving utterance 

 to our grief in verse. When I see chaplets of flowers 

 put upon a newly-made grave I know that the thought 

 will be suggested to most visitors — " There may be grief, 

 but grief that would be known." This is no censorious 

 conclusion, but the consequence of acting unfittingly — real 

 grief is at first silent and unostentatious. Time moderates 

 that grief, and when time has tested it, proved it enduring, 

 then the mourner is in a state of mind more capable of 

 deciding on memorials fitting not only to the dead, but to 

 other survivors besides the mourner. 



The simplest decoration, and to my mind the most fitting 

 decoration of a grave, was a marble cross with a plant of 

 living Ivy twining around it. There I felt a literal illus- 

 tration of Shakespere's utterance, " There are sermons in 

 stones." Gaudy flowers — flowers of any kind — seem to 

 me inappropriate around a grave, even the grave of a 

 child, for the inscription records its early death, and there 

 is no sufficient fitness in the transient flowers ; for the 

 decoration should tell of things more enduring, whether in 

 reference to the after-life of the dead, or the sorrow of the 

 survivors. Rosemary is an evergreen, and that master of 

 congruities, Shakespere, tells. " That 's for remembrance." 

 The Pansy, too, is evergreen, and the same master says, 

 " That 's for thoughts." 



It is quite true that the heart of the mourner should 

 decide the decorations of a grave, but that mourner would 

 do well to consult good taste to regulate the demonstrations 

 suggested by a flection. If flowers are preferred, I think 

 they ought to be the simplest and the least obtrusive in 

 colour and size. The Snowdrop, the Primrose, and, above 

 all, the Violet, should be adopted, for this last-named is 

 evergreen, fragrant, and unpretending — characteristics 

 suitable for all who are on a level in the grave. 

 No. 471,-Vol. xvni. New Serieb. 



It is rarely possible to place by a grave any plant em- 

 blematic of its tenant. Three Lombardy Poplars were 

 planted in a garden by a brother to commemorate his three 

 tall sisters — such would have been inadmissible in a grave- 

 yard, and even where they were they were rendered ridi- 

 culous by having their stems blackened. One instance I 

 know of emblematic grave-decoration that is in no way 

 offensive. In an Essex village churchyard rests an officer 

 of the 48th Regiment, selected by the acclaim of his com- 

 rades to lead the first detachment across the Douro in the 

 face of Marshal Soult's opposing army. Lord Wellington 

 directed him to place a sprig of Laurel in his cap ; and at 

 his grave's head well may grow a plant of Laurel, appro- 

 priately kept dwarf by annual root-pruning, for he was one 

 of the most unpretending of men. 



A commemorative plant might appropriately adorn the 

 grave of him after whom it was named — the Linntea bore- 

 alis might be fittingly around the last resting-place of 

 Linnaeus. Beatonia purpurea might as justly be by the 

 grave of Donald Beaton, if it were sufficiently hardy. 



Evergreens trainable over a grave are Vinca minor, 

 Cotoneaster microphylla, Bridgesia spicata, and Creeping 

 Ivy (Hedera helix humi repens). Dwarf evergreens that 

 may be around aire Berberis Darwinii, Box, various Heaths, 

 and Ruscus, or Butcher's Broom. Of Conifers I think 

 none so suitable as the Irish Yew. 



I have purposely abstained from mentioning some plants 

 which I would admit to the grave's side, because they are 

 particularised — so well particularised — by a country clergy- 

 man, and though I differ from him in some of his details, 

 yet I will ask you to republish his notes. 



" .... in our last decay, 

 Memorials prompt and true." 



" Among all the purposes of pleasure and ornament to 

 which the culture of flowers may be applied, few persons 

 seem to have considered them in reference to the memory 

 of those friends who have left us to join the Church 

 Triumphant. In some wild and, therefore, poetical regions 

 of our island, the custom of dressing graves with flowers 

 has always been preserved, in others it is reviving, and it 

 is very attractive to those in humble life, who certainly 

 feel less dread of death than those who are called their 

 superiors. In a neighbouring churchyard, the green 

 mounds are adorned at Easter by cut flowers inserted in 

 the turf, in the form of a cross, and when well watered 

 they retain their beauty for many days. A narrow border 

 on each side, well filled and neatly kept, may be a source 

 of much pleasure, and may preserve in the minds of the 

 young a pleasing remembrance of those who loved them 

 once. Never fear that the village children will rob or 



■ injure these little gardens ; the experiment has been tried ; 



: they will soon be busy in imitation round the graves of 



! their own friends. But, then, never introduce any plant 

 of value, which may excite a covetous thought. Avoid, 

 also, those which require frequent tying- up, or other at- 

 tention, unless j'ou can promise yourself to continue a 

 frequent attendant on the weekly services. Not by eyen 

 the semblance of voluntary toil let the Lord's Day be pro- 



I faned ; but other seasons will afford opportunities for a 

 No. 1123.— Vol. XLIIL, Old Series. 



