PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Devoted to Art Out-of-Doors, — Parks, Ceme- 
teries, Town and Village Improvements. 
R. J. HAIGHT, Publisher, 
334 Dearborn Street. CHICAGO- 
R. J. HAIGHT, 
JOHN W. WESTON, C. E., 
Editors. 
Subscription Si.ooa Year in Advance. Foreign Subscription $1.25. 
VOL. VII. CHICAGO 
, MAY, 1897. 
No. 3. 
CONTENTS. 
, EDITORIAL— Convention op Park Commissioners, Etc. 
-Decoration Day Politics in the Pakks-Arbor Day. 49 
VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT 50 
•PLAZA, ALAMEDA AND PASEO IN THE CITY OF MEXICO 51 
FLORAL CLOCKS ; 3 
"THE DEDICATION OF THE GRANT MONUMENT 54 
•A FREAK OF NATURE.-WATER LILIES 56 
•MEMORIAL GATEWAY, MONSON, MASS 57 
•NOTES FROM TOWER GROVE PARK, ST. LOUIS 58 
HERBACEOUS PLANTS 60 
♦THE FAUNA OF THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS 61 
•GARDEN PLANTS-THEIR GEOGRAPHY, XVIII 62 
•A GLIMPSE AT FINSBURY PARK, LONDON, ENGLAND- 64 
"TRUE OUTLINES IN CURVED DRIVES 65 
"A FOLIAGE BED.-FROM OUR EXCHANGES 66 
PARK NOTES 68 
CEMETERY NOTES 69 
CORRESPONDENCE 70 
LEGAL 71 
PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT 7 
•Illustrated. 
HE vast importance which the development of 
public parks has assumed since the matter has 
been better understood and appreciated has 
manifested itself in the calling of a convention of 
Park Commissioners, Landscape Gardeners, Archi- 
tects, Engineers and Superintendents to be held at 
Louisville, Ky. , May 20. The call was made by 
the Louisville Board of Park Commissioners and 
has met with a decided welcome, which promises a 
most imposing gathering. That the idea has been 
under consideration elsewhere it may be stated that 
the Park Commissioners of Minneapolis had already 
begun correspondence looking to a convention at 
Minneapolis in July, but has transferred its influ- 
ences to the cause at Louisville. The time is un- 
doubtedly ripe for the exchange of ideas concern- 
ing park work and development among those imme- 
diately engaged. The practice involved in the 
higher departments of park improvement is of such 
a diverse and highly intellectual order, to say noth- 
ing of the question of art which must be credited 
also, that interchange of ideas and communion of 
congenial intellects are necessary to foster increased 
power in the forces that lend themselves to higher 
efforts. It is reasonable to expect that the cause of 
landscape art, coupled with the practical features to 
make it available for the people, will be materially 
assisted by the coming convention, and if out of it 
there should spring a permanent organization whose 
object should be mainly landscape art development, 
happy results would soon ensue, and a power be 
set in motion which might easily regulate existing 
evils and create confidence in the public, a matter 
so requisite to the speedy solution of important 
problems. Among the proposed topics for discus- 
sion are: The purchase and provision of lands; the 
proper boundaries of parks and public grounds; the 
grading and proper construction of roads through 
parks and parkways; the construction of foot and 
bridle paths; the planting and beautifying with 
trees and shrubbery; the protection of trees; the 
cultivation and maintenance of lawns; the provision 
of bicycle paths; the maintenance of order and pub- 
lic service; the use of parks for picnics and athletic 
sports; the water supply — best provided; the con- 
struction and maintenance of interior squares and 
places; the question of street trees — kinds, protec- 
tion and planting. Several papers have been prom- 
ised on important features of park work. 
D ECORATION DAY is another institution, the 
observation of which exercises much influence 
of good, besides the special object of “keep- 
ing the memory green” of those who fell in the coun- 
try’s service by decorating their graves with the 
early flowers of the year. By natural association, 
as it were, it has also become a time for the dedi- 
cation of memorials, both in a public and private 
sense, so that it is a day which custom as well as law 
has set apart, and by reason of the common inter- 
ests and sympathies involved it is one of great 
import in our national life. Its influences are be- 
coming more and more apparent in the smaller 
places, and it is in such places that it has exerted a 
power of good. Since the appointment of a “Deco- 
ration Day” there has been a constantly increasing 
willingness to clean up our smaller cemeteries in 
anticipation of the visitors and the ceremonies to be 
enacted. It has stimulated the idea of citizenship 
by reason of the knowledge of the cost of preser- 
ving it inviolate; and to provide for the actual work 
