PUBLIC CEMETERIES AND PUBLIC GARDENS. 15*7 



which these beautiful cemeteries constantly exercise on the public 

 mind, it is only necessary to refer to the rapidity with which they 

 have increased in fifteen years, as we have just remarked. To en- 

 able them to judge how largely they arouse public curiosity, we may 

 mention that at Laurel Hill, four miles from Philadelphia, an ac- 

 count was kept of the number of visitors during last season ; and the 

 sum total, as we were told by one of the directors, was nearly 30,000 

 pei-sons, who entered the gates between April and December, 1848. 

 Judging only from occasional observations, we should imagine that 

 double that number visit Greenwood, and certainly an equal num- 

 ber, Mount Auburn, in a season. 



We have already remarked, that, in the absence of public gar- 

 dens, rural cemeteries, in a certain degree, supplied their place. But 

 does not this general interest, manifested in these cemeteries, prove 

 that public gardens, established in a liberal and suitable manner, 

 near our large cities, would be equally successful ? If 30,000 per- 

 sons visit a cemetery in a single season, would not a large public 

 garden be equally a matter of curious investigation ? Would not 

 such gardens educate the public taste more rapidly than any thing 

 else ? And would not the progress of horticulture, as a science and 

 an art, be equally benefited by such establishments ? The passion 

 for rural pleasures is destined to be the predominant passion of all 

 the more thoughtful and educated portion of our people ; and any 

 means of gratifying their love for ornamental or useful gardening, 

 will be eagerly seized by hundreds of thousands of our countrymen. 



Let us suppose a joint-stock company, formed in any of our 

 cities, for the purpose of providing its inhabitants with the luxury 

 of a public garden. A site should be selected with the same judg- 

 ment which has already been shown by the cemetery companies. 

 It should have a varied surface, a good position, sufficient natural 

 wood, with open space and good soil enough for the arrangement 

 of all those portions which require to be newly planted. 



Such a garden might, in the space of fifty to one hundred acres, 

 afford an example of the principal modes of laying out grounds, 

 thus teaching practical landscape-gardening. It might contain a 

 collection of all the hardy trees and shrubs that grow in this cli- 

 mate, each distinctly labelled, so that the most ignorant visitor 



