489 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
? I 'WANT TO KNOW ? 
4 
Here are some questions in which 
most cemetery superintendents are in- 
terested. They have been asked hy 
members of the Association of American 
Cemetery Superintendents and replies are 
cordially invited from any of our read- 
ers. Please write on one side of sheet. 
1. Do any cemeteries prohibit placing 
flowers in the public receiving vault dur- 
ing thenvinter? — J. W. K. 
2. What provision is usually made on 
sections to take care of the snow water 
resulting from a sudden thaw? — J. R. 
3. How can we educate lot owners to 
provide perpetual care in a cemetery con- 
secrated fifty years ago?- -F. S. N. 
4. What is the best way to mark lots 
and graves so that strangers can find 
them without assistance? — H. B. 
5. Will those using bells or telephones 
for communicating with their employes 
on the grounds please describe their 
systems? — W, H. F. 
Hardy Cemetery Border Plants 
In answer to the question of a ceme- 
tery superintendent as to what low, har- 
dy plants make a good border for small 
shrubbery and planting beds for a ceme- 
tery in New England, John W. Duncan, 
assistant superintendent of parks at Bos- 
ton, writes as follows : 
“I presume it is intended that the term 
hardy plants means in this case hardy 
herbaceous plants. There is no better 
place for this class of plants than bor- 
dering shrubbery, and very beautiful ef- 
fects may be made with them. It is 
well to bring the shrubbery down, as it 
were, from the tall growing kinds at 
the back to the dwarf sorts in front, and 
in fact most beautiful natural effects can 
be made by occasionally bringing the 
shrubbery to the edge of the border or 
bed by using such dwarf shrubs as Zan- 
thorhiza apiifolia, Clethra alnifolia. This 
for good effects should be cut down to 
within a few inches of the ground every 
year ; Amorpha canescens. Spiraea Bu- 
maldi and Anthony Waterer, Hydrangea 
radiata and nivea, Berberis canadensis, 
Cydonia Japonica pygmaea, Pachysan- 
dra terminalis, Rosa blanda, Arkansana 
rfigosa and lucida. 
There is a wealth of these single na- 
tive roses that make most beautiful ef- 
fects, both in flowers and in fruit. 
Now to return to the dwarfer grow- 
ing herbaceous plants, the list is great 
and varied, and I will only attempt to 
give a few of the most effective sorts. 
Funkia subcordata grandiflora, I con- 
sider one of the leaders, with its beauti- 
ful white flowers and fine effective foli- 
age. There are other funkias, too, which 
are valuable, among them Coerulea and 
Japonica. 
The German Irises are valuable plants 
for this purpose, and their variety is 
large and varied. The Achilleas are 
good, especially millefolium roseum 
and ptarmica florepleno the Pearl. 
Some of the campanulas come in good 
for this purpose, among them carpatica 
and carpatica alba. 
Clematis Davidiana is a beautiful 
plant for this purpose, with pale blue 
flowers in late summer, and another fine 
clematis is the variety recta, with masses 
of white flowers. Lychnis biscaria 
splendens and Lychnis floscuculi are 
both grand early flowering plants. Some 
of the Oenotheras like Youngi or fruti- 
cosa major are worthy of a place. The 
Hemerocalis or day lilies, are splendid 
for this purpose. Flava, Kwanso, Mid- 
dendorfiana and Dumortierii, are all 
good varieties. Some of the dwarf 
growing Hybrid Phloxes are good, such 
varieties as Miss Lingard, Coquelicot, 
Le Siecle, William Robinson and Inde- 
pendence. Some of the Spiraeas might 
be used to advantage, such as Aruncus, 
astilboides, lobata and palmata. The 
hardy salvias are good, and then some 
of the Veronicas, the best one is Longi- 
folia subsessilis. 
There are many other plants that 
might be used advantageously, the va- 
riety of which might best be found out 
from a season’s careful study in some 
nursery where herbaceous plants are 
grown. 
Taxation of Cemeteries 
The question of the taxation of ceme- 
teries is discussed at length and numer- 
ous decisions cited in Mortuary Law by 
Sidney Perley, published by George B. 
Reed, law publisher, Boston, 1896, and 
in. Law as to Cemeteries, etc., in the 
state of New York, by John Power, 
published by W. C. Little & Co., Albany 
N. Y. 
Under common law, cemetery asso- 
ciations are subject to taxation, but 
probably every charter granted contains 
an exemption clause, and in recent years 
the general law of nearly every state 
in the Union exempts cemetery property 
from taxation. “The reason of this ex- 
emption is not the financial benefit to 
cemetery associations, but the preser- 
vation of burial places for the use to 
which they are appropriated, and to se- 
cure their perpetuity as resting places 
of the dead, and thus guard against their 
desecration, which would result if the 
property were liable to be sold for 
taxes.” The leading cases are The Pro- 
prietors of the Cemetery of Mt. Auburn 
vs. Mayor, etc., of Cambridge et al., 150 
Mass. 12 (1889), in which sewer tax 
was set aside as illegal. Buffalo City 
Cemetery vs. Buffalo, 46 N. Y., 506. 
The number of cases quoted in the 
briefs would make a too extensive docu- 
ment for publication in your paper, but 
I can have a typewritten copy sent to 
anyone specially interested. 
Cambridge, Mass. J. C. Scorgie. 
“WHAT’S IN A NAME?” 
Any person interested in cemetery 
matters and who follows the current 
literature on the subject must have 
been impressed with the lack of orig- 
inality and imagination shown by per- 
sons naming new cemeteries. It seems 
almost an unwritten law that the word 
“mount,” or “wood,’ ’ or “lawn,” or 
“hill” must form a part of the name 
of a new cemetery. Must this state 
of affairs continue, and must we keep 
on duplicating and re-duplicating, and 
so on to infinity the names of a few 
prominent cemeteries in the country? 
For instance, under the heading of 
“New Cemeteries and Improvements,” 
in the last issue of Park and Cem- 
etery, we find that the name Wood- 
lawn appears twice, the name Oak- 
wood appears twice, the name Green- 
wood appears four times, and the 
name Forest Lawn appears three 
times, all as names of cemeteries in 
widely separated parts of the country. 
One is led to wonder how many 
Mount Olivets and Mount Hopes, and 
the various other kinds of Mounts, 
there are in this great country of 
ours, and how many repeated combi- 
nations of the words lawn, ridge, hill 
and dale exist, with the much abused 
oak and elm, and how many cemeter- 
ies bear the name of Rose Hill. 
Is this just carelessness, or is it 
a manifestation of the generally ac- 
cepted feeling that brains and ability 
are not needed to establish and oper- 
ate a cemetery, but that a wheelwright, 
a plasterer or a country banker has 
all the information and experience 
necessary to conduct a modern ceme- 
tery, after receiving a few hasty re- 
plies from three or four successful 
cemetery managers in different parts 
•of the country? 
Morgan Park, III. W. N. Rudd. 
P. S.-^The writer admits, in order 
to forestall criticism, that he is in 
charge of a cemetery named Mount 
Greenwood. 
