October i6, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



495 



a character of its own to the country-side as seen from the 

 windows of the railway-carriage. Beautifully-wooded slopes, 

 ruined castles on commanding spots and smiling valleys com- 

 bine to render the district between the last-mentioned city and 

 the Mont Cenis tunnel singularly picturesque and beautiful. 

 On the gravelly, stony banks of the rivers Isere and Arc — the 

 train crosses the latter many times — welcome bits of 

 bright color were afforded by bushes, heavily laden 

 with fruit, of the Dog Rose {Rosa canina), Barberry, 

 and the Sea Buckthorn, with its long, narrow, gray 

 leaves and innumerable orange-red fruits. After pass- 

 ing through the Mont Cenis tunnel we pass the now 

 deserted Mont Cenis road (constructed under Napo- 

 leon I. in the years 1802-5), which continues to ascend 

 the Arc Valley. Here the latter narrows into a wild, 

 picturesque gorge, and the train passes through nu- 

 merous tunnels, between which we catch glimpses 

 of frontier fortresses, aqueducts, waterfalls, bare, 

 grassless hill-sides, bleak, desolate-looking mount- 

 ains, on the highest of which snow-fields of consider- 

 able size glistened in the fierce sunlight. Then the 

 valley expands, and Susa, with the Arch of Augustus, 

 comes into sight. On the dry, hot banks above the 

 river, a Globe-Thistle (Echinops), with its spherical heads of 

 bright blue, was very attractive, and in the small meadows 

 the pale purple flowers of the Meadow Saffron {Colchinttn 

 mituninale) were everywhere conspicuous. From this point 

 the railway descends rapidly, passes through beautiful Chest- 

 nut-woods, and crosses the Dora, whose waters flow into the 

 Po below Turin. George Nicholson. 



Kew. 



Small Burial Grounds. 



'X'HROUGHOUT the country many public and private institu- 

 ■*• tions can be found, such as hospitals, asylums, alms- 

 houses and the like, which are compelled to provide burial 

 grounds of their own. As a rule, these are located upon the 

 most folorn spot which the institutions can command. They 

 are constructed without regard to appearance, and little care 

 is taken of them. The contrast between these ill-kept grounds 

 and a properly maintained cemetery is so great, that one is dis- 

 posed to consider the treatment of the dead in some of them 

 as almost barbarous. It must be remembered, however, that 

 these institutions often care for the living without charge, and 

 they are inclined to consider their obligations to the dead dis- 

 charged when a free burial is furnished ; and it is little wonder, 

 therefore, that these grounds at last become a neglected 

 Potter's-field. There are no monuments here, no headstones, 

 no shrubbery, no planting of any kind, and the little mound 

 which marks the place of burial will soon settle down in the 

 tangle of briers and weeds, and leave no sign. 



Now, plainly, something can be done to render these burial 

 places less offensive. The problem is how to prepare them 

 with little expense and in such a way that little labor will be 

 required to maintain them. If the ground 

 can be selected at a distance of half a mile 

 or a mile from the institution, so much 

 the better. A fair slope or easy undulation 

 is preferable to level ground, and as no ex- 

 pensive treatment is allowed, the dignity 

 which such a place should command 

 must be secured by its general arrange- 

 ment and by the simple disposition of 

 trees and shrubs. It is desirable to con- 

 ceal to some extent the actual burial 

 ground from the entrance gate, and to 

 devote a space for an appropriate planting 

 in which the expression of repose and 

 solitude should prevail. Gate piers, built 

 of rubble stones and covered with ivy, 

 would add to the proper character and 

 effectiveness of the entrance. Through 

 this gateway the approach should connect 

 with a circuit road, which may either en- 

 close the grounds where interments are to 

 be made, or give direct access to them. 

 The road or pathway, of some twelve 

 or fifteen feet in width, may consist of a mere excavation of 

 the top soil to the depth of twelve or eighteen inches, its grade 

 being uniform with that of the surface of the ground. It should 

 be seeded with lawn grass, with the edges sodded. The bor- 

 der of ten feet wide on either side of the circuit road, should 

 be planted with evergreen trees, twenty-five feet apart, and a 

 burial plot surrounded in this way is divided into tiers for oc- 

 cupation. These tiers follow the grading of the pathway in 



hne until the innermost one leaves a space in the center of the 

 plot of from fifty to a hundred feet wide, and this space is re- 

 served for the grouping of trees and shrubs in such a way as 

 to create a picturesque background from any point on the 

 circuit paths. There will be little need of any wheeling over 

 such grounds, and the reason for lowering the pathway is 



DIAGRAM OF THE CEMETERY FOR THE 



OWA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE 

 AT Inoepenoence Iowa. 



simply to establish a permanent mark for the proper line while 

 the ornamental belt of evergreen trees on both sides of the 

 path will mark the border when deep snow covers the ground. 

 An occasional day's work given to cutting grass in the path 

 and on the border is all that will be required to keep such 

 grounds in order. However, if it is possible, a little labor in 

 the care of the burial space and of the trees will add much 

 to the attractiveness of the grounds, or if a little expense can 

 be afforded for some general monument or memorial at 

 some prominent point near the entrance, the aspect of the 

 cemetery would be greatly improved. 



To illustrate these principles the above diagram of the 

 cemetery of the Iowa Hospital for the Insane, at Indepen- 

 dence, is given to explain the simple arrangement necessary 

 for improving such grounds at the smallest possible cost. 

 The old burial-grounds of this large institution were consid- 

 ered too close to the main building, and a removal was made 

 to this new cemetery, which is a mile and a half from the hos- 

 pital. The plot is somewhat undulating, the highest point 

 being near the eastern boundary line, with a slope to the west 

 of about four feet in one hundred. The circuit drive was laid 

 out over the most eligible part of the ground, beginning at 

 about fifty feet from the entrance gate, and it follows in its 

 course the natural contour of the land, enclosing an area of 

 some thirty acres. As is customary in such institutions, the 

 sexes are separated, and between the two tiers the so-called 

 permanent reservation ground is now used as an irregularly 

 planted nursery for forest and ornamental trees. Upon a tri- 

 angular plot at the beginning of the circuit path and in sight 

 of the entrance a plain general monument will be erected. 

 Deciduous and evergreen trees are planted in groups covering 



D/AQRAM OF A 5.AC/^£ CEMETERY 

 for a 





Charitable Institution 

 New Tor k 











»•« »''X-^ FATjy^ 





;-.-:"vV;, " • .. 



\\r\- "''':'^r '. '"■''. ' -4 . '-.'W 







a space between the path and enclosure line, so as to seclude 

 the place more completely from its surroimdings. 



Many institutions, however, are not able to devote so laro-e 

 an area for cemetery purposes ; their grounds are contracted, 

 and therefore an additional diagram is given to illustrate the 

 application of these same principles to a comparatively small 

 tract. The plan given is for an enclosure of only three acres. 



New York. J. U eide7iman. 



