THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
AN ILLUSiminD MONTHLY JOyfiNAL DEVOTED TO THE INTEREST OF CEMETERIES 
334 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO. 
Subscription $1.00 a Year in Advance. ^ Foreign Subscription $1.15. 
Special Rates on Six or More Copies. 
VoL. IV. CHICAGO, OCTOBER, 1894. No. 8 . 
CONTENTS. 
SUITABLE TREES AND SHRUBS FOR A MODERN CEME- 
TERY 85 
♦AQUATIC GARDEN, PINE GROVE CEMETERY, LYNN, 
MASS 88 
'MT. AUBURN, AND SOME OF ITS FAMOUS DEAD 89 
FUNERAL CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT NATIONS r,o 
♦SHRUBBY HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS 91 
SOME CANONS OF CRITICISM 91 
♦WESTLAWN RECEIVING VAULT, CANTON, 0 92 
CEMETERY NOTES 94 
CORRESPONDENCE 95 
PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT 96 
♦Illustrated. 
Suitable Trees and Shrubs for a Modern Cemetery.* 
To obtain the best and most satisfactory result 
from trees and shrubs in connection with cemetery 
planting is one of more than usual importance. We 
have only to look around us in many cemetery 
grounds to recognize how desirable improvement, 
from a practical stand-point, and by a judicious se- 
lection and arrangement of cemetery trees and 
shrubs becomes. It is generally found as time rolls 
on, that a large proportion of the trees originally 
planted are where they should never have been, 
and, as a consequence, have to be cut away before 
they have really served any useful purpose. The 
great object of modern cemetery planting is not so 
much to afford shade, form screens or accomplish 
other objects of practical importance, as it is that 
the beautiful picture presented by a skilled display 
of trees, shrubs and flowers should rob death of the 
many terrors which the ignorance and superstitions 
of olden times surrounded it. 
The modern idea of a cemetery is not so much 
that the grave is the end of all as it is that it is the 
beginning of a new career of happiness which we 
♦Paper read before the Eighth Annual Convention of the Association 
of American Cemetery Superintendents, Philadelphia, by Thomas B. 
Meehan . 
are taught the new life is to be. The earliest idea 
of paradise was that of a beautiful garden, and it is 
impossible to rob the paradise of the future of the 
same surroundings. The modern cemetery is, 
therefore, the ideal garden of the future, so far as it 
is possible for the human intellect to accomplish, 
and it should be the aim to make pleasurable the 
visits of the living, by making beautiful the resting 
places of the dead, leading the mind from gloomy 
thoughts such as ancient cemeteries fostered; but 
this beautiful garden must necessarily be subservi- 
ent to practical details. It is impossible to accom- 
plish anything in this world, that is not a financial 
success, and there is no reason why financial success 
and the ideal cemetery garden cannot both go hand 
in hand. And, in fact, the financial aspects require 
close consideration in connection with the adorn- 
ment of the grounds. In the planting of the ceme- 
tery, therefore, the possible desires of future lot- 
holders should be considered. I knew once of a 
cemetery which prided itself on the number of rare 
trees it contained, and which had among its arbor- 
eal treasures one of the finest specimens of the Ce- 
dar of Lebanon to be found in the United States. 
The majority of lot-holders would have been proud 
to have possessed such a rare gem. Not so, howev- 
er, the one who owned it at the time in mind. The 
superintendent of the company was amazed when 
the lot-holder came one day to insist on cutting 
down the tree, because it shaded over the grave and 
moss grew on his marble monument. Determined 
to save his tree, the superintendent had to make 
arrangements to give the owner a large price for 
his lot and sell him another one, and have the in- 
terred removed rather than have his beloved tree 
taken away. Such occurrences as this cannot al- 
ways be foreseen, but they may be sometimes, and 
thought should be given in the arrangement and 
planting of cemeteries to the possibility of such un- 
pleasant occurrences. With this end in view, it 
would seem desirable, therefore, that portions of the 
grounds should be reserved expressly for planting 
in order to beautify and make as nearly as possible 
an ideal garden spot, while that portion devoted to 
the lot-holders should be as free from planting as 
would be consistent with the necessary landscape 
effect. By the judicious selection of these spots, 
a general landscape effect would be produced which 
is lacking in very many cemeteries, even in those of 
recent beginning. 
I have frequently felt that sufficient importance 
has not been attached to the artistic arrangement 
