PAR.K AND CEMETERY 
389 
The Adams monument, a famous point of interest for 
sightseers, was a mecca for the party. It was modeled 
by the foremost American sculptor, Augustus Saint- 
Gaudens. The wonderful bronze figure which has 
been variously termed “Grief,” “The Angel of Death,” 
“The Peace of God,” etc., is one of the most impres- 
sive memorials in the country. Surrounded by a close 
planting of Arbor Vitae, it is made doubly impressive 
by seclusion. The bronze statue of “Memory,” a 
seated figure in a granite exedra overgrown with vines, 
modeled by William Ordway Partridge, was another 
interesting monument seen. After a brief stroll 
around to admire the majestic old trees, one of the 
chief treasures of the cemetery, the party went to the 
chapel for the afternoon session. 
The first business was the election of officers, which 
resulted in choosing the list of nominees as reported 
at the session of the previous day. The report of the 
Auditing Committee was accepted and President Mor- 
ton introduced to the Convention Mr. George H. 
Brown, Landscape Gardener of Public Grounds, of 
Washington. Mr. Brown spoke brieffy of his impres- 
sion of the peculiarities and difficulties of attaining 
landscape effects in cemeteries and said that the finest 
cemeteries of the future would be those that had been 
well planned before any lots were sold ; these could set 
aside certain portions of the cemetery boundary and 
small areas at section boundaries for ornamental plant- 
ing. Most cemeteries, he said, contained too many 
trees and not enough flowering shrubs and herbaceous 
plants. The planting on the public grounds was briefly 
described and the placing of native trees in boundaries 
rather than in rows was commended. Roads and 
lawns are the most attractive parts of a cemetery and 
should be well kept. The speaker believed macadam 
roads to be best. Mr. Brown came to Washington 
fifty years ago and the parks of the city have all been 
created since that time. The city is on the border 
line between the north and the south, a very favorable 
location for growing all kinds of trees and shrubs. It 
is particularly rich in oaks and maples and flowering 
trees and shrubs. Park work is still under active de- 
velopment and the department is now taking in about 
fifty acres of land reclaimed from the river front. 
There are now over four hundred acres of reservation. 
In response to questions from Superintendent Falconer, 
of Pittsburg, Mr. Brown noted some of the best shrubs 
for each season of the year. In early spring the Jase- 
mine leads the way, blooming sometimes in January. 
It is followed by many varieties of Forsythia and 
Spiraeas, of which Mr. Brown mentioned particularly 
the prunifolia and the Reevesii. The most beautiful 
tree in the springtime in Washington is the Magnolia 
speciosa. Am.ong the shrubs were Sidonia, all of the 
Deutzias, and Syringas. The use of shrubbery under 
trees whose foliage did not come near the ground was 
here noted as desirable. In midsummer come the flow- 
ering trees, including the Magnolias and others, and 
in late summer the Hydrangeas. Later come the Chi- 
nese Tamarix, the Desmodiums, Lobelia rupestris, and 
the berried plants, among these the Carolina Buck- 
thorn is the favorite. The Dogwood, the Barberry, 
Hydrangeas, Viburnums, several varieties of Azaleas, 
Rosa lucida, Rosa rugosa, are all mentioned as very 
desirable shrubs for beautifying the cemeteries. Other 
members joined in questioning Mr. Brown about dif- 
ferent shrubs and plants before he was finally allowed 
to take his seat. 
A paper by A. L. Snyder, of Fountain Grove Ceme- 
tery, .Bryan, Ohio, was read by Bellett Lawson, Jr., 
as Mr. Snyder was not present. 
Mr. Snyder thought that the chapel would have 
more usefulness if utilized as an archive and could 
be made a place of much historic interest. Some of 
the money expended for monuments could, he thought, 
be more properly used for making the chapel a deposi- 
tory or museum for historic or scientific objects which 
would make it an object of pilgrimage for the devout, 
the curious, and the scientific. 
J. E. Miller, of Dodge Grove Cemetery, Mattoon, 
111., read a paper on “Legal Matters Affecting Ceme- 
teries.” It dealt chiefly with the lack of cemetery 
legislation in Illinois and the work of the Illinois State 
Association to remedy this need. The laws are in a 
very chaotic state and fail to define legal rights of the 
lot owners and of the cemetery authorities. The right 
of heirship and interment in a lot after the death of 
the owner is one of the vexatious points that the leg- 
islative committee is trying to clear up. They have 
succeeded in getting the Legislature to pass a bill pro- 
viding for a permanent care fund in cemeteries owned 
and controlled by cities. Three other bills were intro- 
duced but did not come up for passage owing to the 
early adjournment of the Legislature. These, it is 
confident, will be passed at the next session. Among 
the matters dealt with in these bills are the fixing of 
the right of interment in the lot ; giving cemetery of- 
ficials full charge of traffic in the cemetery ; giving more 
adequate police protection, and doing away with the 
nuisance of peddlers, and other disturbers of quiet at 
the cemetery entrance. 
In the discussion which followed Mr. Scorgie told 
of some of the special features of the Massachusetts 
laws and noted a recent decision concerning Swan 
Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island, to the effect 
that an heir or a purchaser of the lot from the original 
owner does not take an absolute ownership but simply 
an easement in the lot. He has a right to make an 
interment or erect a monument on a lot, but has no 
right to remove a body. Several members quoted in- 
stances to show that the cemetery had a right to pre- 
vent interment until charges on a lot were paid. Mr. 
