CEMETERIES AND PARKS. 81 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 

 Cemeteries and Parks. 



By John G. Barkeb, Superintendent of Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain. 



Either one of these topics would suggest more than enough to 

 take up the allotted time for one of these discussions. I hardly 

 know what is expected of me ; perhaps this wide range was giren 

 me so that I could go where I please for information, and bring 

 you such facts as my own experience and correspondence might 

 suggest, so I will make some observations noted during mj' vaca- 

 tion the basis of what I have to say. I cannot resist the tempta- 

 tion to give you a little account of my first visit on this excursion, 

 although it was not to a cemetery or a park. 



After several weeks of careful planning that everything should 

 go on uninterruptedly and successfullj', and with anticipations of 

 a pleasant and profitable rest from accustomed labors for a brief 

 period, on the afternoon of September 10 I met a genial friend at 

 the Boston and Albany Railroad station, in whose companj' the trip 

 was made. In a few brief hours we were two hundred miles from 

 home, and the next morning in good season we called at the 

 nursery of an old and much respected frrend — an enthusiast in the 

 strongest sense of the term, from his boyhood to the present day, 

 in regard to everything that is beautiful in nature and art — one 

 who can tell you more than any other man of whom I know, about 

 all that is good in both old and new foliage and flowering plants, 

 and who has kept the run of all the changes in taste and style of 

 planting and bedding out and landscape art. Indeed, nothing in 

 horticulture has escaped his scrutiny and criticism, and he never 

 was carried away with any new thing that came along merely 

 because it was new, although always recognizing the good in the 

 new. His standard has always been high, and he has felt a com- 

 mendable pride in trying to elevate his profession. Today his 

 collection of plants is a very choice one, and many fine specimens 

 of rare and choice species and varieties are to be seen as evidences 

 of his skill and ability. His catalogues are most carefully com- 

 piled, and I believe that not a tree, shrub, or plant is named in 

 them but has some merit or value. 

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