68 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
twt.en these are filled with delicate trailing plants, 
ferns, grasses or mosses. Everywhere some such 
charming plan will be found carried out with fine 
breadth of effect, great beauty of detail, and, with- 
al, infinite variety of form and color. In all favored 
climates vegetation literally clothes the earth. 
To return to ourpretty, unassuming little friends 
the carpet plants; Veronica cupestris is a neat, com- 
pact, low-growing plant that spreads a layer of 
sprays nearly parallel with»the ground, (but a little 
above its surface,) each closely filled with small 
dark green leaves that look fresh and living after 
weeks of heat and insufficient watering; it also gives 
itself a nice finish by carelessly lifting a loose spray 
of the same pretty leaves here and there to take from 
the formality of its appearance, and in early 
summer it is decorated with many small spikes of 
pretty blue flowers — good while they last, yet not 
greatly missed when they are- gone because the foli- 
age retains its admirable qualities throughout the 
season. 
Cerastrum tomentosum attains an average 
height of about six inches, being a little less dwarf 
in effect than the Veronica, and in direct contrast 
to it in color, as it is silvery green or greenish white 
in tone. It has small pointed leaves set closely 
along the nearly upright stems, bears a good crop 
of starry white flowers in spring, and endures drouth 
remarkably well. These plants are useful for cover- 
ing the ground around taller ones in hardy borders. 
In moist partly shaded situations For-get-me-nots 
are a good selection for the same purpose. And in 
all situations the Moss Pinks (Phlox subulata and 
P. subulata alba) are excellent low plants for edging 
beds of hardy perennials or for smothering the 
ground around their feet. 
Fanny Copley Seavey. 
{To he contimied.) 
The Soil of Graveyards. 
At a special meeting of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, on May 28, a paper was read on the 
‘ ‘Chemical and Bacteriological Plxamination of Soil,” 
by Dr. James Buchanan Young. The question was 
whether the present method of the disposal of the 
dead was inimical to the public health. He had 
approached the subject from the point of view of 
examining virgin soil and soil which had been used 
for inhumation, and he had done so chemically and 
bacteriologically. He had tested the soil for org- 
anic carbon and organic nitrogen, and also for ni- 
trates. Such work was not easy to carry on in 
England on account of restrictions imposed on in- 
vestigators in graveyards, but great facilities were 
given for it on the Continent. The result of an ex- 
amination of virgin soil in the Grange Cemetery 
which had never been used for inhumation, was 
this; Organic carbon, .265; organic nitrogen, .0257; 
and ammonia, .0005 per cent. The Arboretum soil 
which had been used for cultivation gave organic 
carbon, .842; nitrogen, .0936; ammonia, .0096; 
while in soil that had been used for inhumation the 
figures were — carbon, .87; nitrogen, .1073; and am- 
monia, .0115. It was apparent from these figures 
that the soil used for burial purposes was not ren- 
dered materially impure, and when the graves were 
opened the soil was in such a state of purification 
as not to differ greatly from other soil which had 
never been used for burial. Schutzenberger had 
made investigations into soils in Paris with this re- 
sult, that whereas in virgin soils the figures were — 
carbon, .835, nitrogen, .01 — in the soil of the fosse 
cotnmiine, in the Mont Parnasse Cemetery, they were 
.14 carbon and .15 nitrogen. The soil of Mont 
Parnasse was thus richer in organic carbon than the 
cemeteries of Edinburgh, but it was not a bit worse 
than the soil which was often found in sites of hou- 
ses, for the reason that in such cities as Edinburgh, 
the ground naturally had been polluted by the want 
of sanitary arrangements in the past. The result, 
therefore, of the investigations was this, that, from 
a chemical point of view, there was no reason to 
consider that inhumation as at present practised 
was inimical to public health. This question had 
been dealt with in Germany by testing the ground 
air for carbonic acid, both at and below the levels 
at which interments were made. Statements had 
been made that there was a large amount of carbu- 
retted hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and sulphuretted 
hydrogen in graveyards, and when one read the ev- 
idence of the witnesses given before a Commission 
many years ago as to the state of the London grave- 
yards, one could only wonder at their vivid imagi- 
nations. Some of them actually spoke of fires 
bursting forth from the graves. Well, Hesse of 
Saxony had worked this out, and had found that 
after ten years in fairly good porous soil the car- 
bonic acid in the gases aspirated from the soil had 
almost come down to the normal of ordinary soil, 
and that in twenty years the soil had purified itself. 
It had been said that graveyards polluted the air by 
the gases which rose from them. Tests had been_ 
made of the air in the Rue de Rivoli and in Pere la 
Chaise Cemetery, and there was no difference at all; 
and as regards carbonic acid, it had been found 
that the air in St. Cuthbert’s Churchyard was ra- 
ther purer than the air in Princes Street. In testing 
for micro-organisms, it was found that these dim'n- 
ished in the ground from above downwards, the soil 
acting as a filter — an important result, as bearing 
on the pollution by organisms of water courses 
passing under graveyards. Figures were given to 
