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Formal Gardening. 
New York City, Nov. 5, 1898. 
Editor Park and Cemetery : 
Dear Sir : — As a subscriber to and constant reader of your 
valuable and interesting paper, to which, since the untimely de- 
cease of Garden and Forest we have alone to look for a better 
standard in the arts of which it treats, I was grieved to see in a 
leader in the current issue a capens calami which is calculated to 
mislead many. 
Surely, in the editorial on the first page which occupies the 
greater portion of the second column, you must have intended to 
write “ Carpet Bedding - ’ instead of “Formal Gardening.” 
No one who is familiar with the splendid Formal Gardens 
of Italy and England could imagine that the Art which created 
them sympathized with or countenanced the “ curiosities in 
flower beds ” or the “heterogeneous nondescripts” you so justly 
censure. 
No doubt you can find here and there an instance of topiary 
extravagance or over elaborated parterre which would give color 
to your strictures of the Art, but as a practitioner of the noble 
and ancient craft of Formal Gardening, I most respectfully 
protest against its being held responsible for the eccentricities 
of the ignorant and tasteless Carpet bedding. All that we 
maintain is, that those portions of the garden which come into 
direct juxtaposition with the house or other buildings should be 
disposed — planned in a formal and orderly manner, believing 
that such a disposition harmonizes better with the Architecture 
it frames and should adorn than the informal so-called “ Land- 
scape style.” Messrs. Blomfield and Thomas’ “ Formal Garden 
in England ” lays d jwn the principles of our craft clearly, if 
somewhat disputatiously. 
When the garden has been planned formally, and in a style 
of Architecture consonant with that of the building, the more 
informal the planting of flowers the better the effect. 
This is provable by a glance at such gardens as the Villa 
Lante in Italy, or those of Holland House, Hatfield or Monta- 
cute in England, not to mention a host of others in both coun- 
tries. 
Trusting that you may feel disposed to make some public 
amendment of this lapse, I remain, respectfully, 
E, Hamilton Bell. 
We are very glad to receive Mr. Bell’s suggestive communi- 
cation and to note his views on Formal Gardening. We have 
to say however that the editorial in question dealt solely with gar- 
dening in the Parks without reference to whatever modifications 
might be desirable in connection with the architectural features. 
Perhaps the use of the term “formal gardening” in place of 
“carpet bedding” was taken in too broad a sense by our corres- 
pondent. — [Eds. 
* * 
* 
Planting Station Grounds. 
Smith’s Grove, Ky., Nov. 8, 1898. 
Editor Park and Cemetery: 
Dear Sir: — Of late years it is encouraging to a true lover 
of horticulture to notice the growing tendency of our railroad 
companies in planting and beautifying their grounds adjacent to 
the tracks and depots. Nothing more pleases and rests the 
eye of a weary passenger than to view from his window some 
unique design executed by a tasteful gardener, and nothing is a 
better advertising card for the company than to present him 
with such an unusual luxury. These grounds must all have at- 
tention, any way, and to have them sodded or laid off into a few 
geometrical walks and flower beds, will, from a business stand- 
point, require but one point more to keep them up than it will 
to keep down the briers, bushes and weeds that are usually pre- 
valent in such places. The railroad companies are beginning to 
realize this, as well as the pleasure the neat, artistic appearance 
affords an appreciative traveling public, and some of them have 
taken very commendable steps to carry it out. Flower loving 
people everywhere should heartily endorse and encourage 
this, for there are millions of unoccupied acres that might be 
brought out thus by people who are able to afford it and who are 
willing to do it upon due solicitation. Our papers should urge 
and encourage this work, and individuals everywhere mention it 
occasionally to the railroad officials. Geo. B. Moulder. 
* * * 
Elodea Canadensis — Leaves. 
Oak Grove Cemetery, Delaware, O., Nov. 3, 1S98. 
Editor Park and Cemetery, 
Dear Sir: — I note that a number of superintendents have 
been troubled with Elodea Canadensis. Through our cemetery 
we have a chain of lakes in a ravine running through the grounds, 
and we found that since we began to keep some geese and com- 
mon ducks on the waters, we have had no trouble, whereas 
before that time we could not keep the weed under control. We 
were bothered continually with it. I found also that common 
geese and ducks were better for that purpose than fancy 
breeds. 
On the subject of what shall we do with our leaves, I would 
say that Oak Grove Cemetery is what may be called a forest 
cemetery. Every year for ten years past we have been thinning 
out the trees as fast as we could overcome the prejudices of the 
people, but four years ago we bought fifty additional acres, and 
since that time we haul all the leaves on to that ground and 
plough them in and farm it with good results. 
David Grinton. 
A Plantation Graveyard. 
A writer in the Baptist Courier thus describes a negro burial 
scene in the plantation graveyard of ante-bellum days: 
The plantation graveyard lay on the sloping edge of a gentle 
hill that led down to the creek that flowed below. Big oaks af- 
forded a beautiful shade. The place was quiet and secluded, 
shut in by a rail fence. 
In an autumn month there was a death in the plantation. 
An old negro, a very old negro, was dead, and my father and I 
went out to the burial. They laid him away with the others who 
had gone out from ihe “quarter.” On reaching the grave the 
negro women stood to one side under the trees, clad in homespun 
frocks and wearing large headcloths artistically about their heads. 
The only burial service was a prayer made by an old negro man 
in a most pious, singing tone, and as the corpse was being low- 
ered into the grave the man who stood there to receiveand guide 
the coffin said: “Han’ him down gentle, boys! His bones is 
ole! ” When the grave was being filled up each negro present, 
including the women and children, cast a handful of earth upon 
the coffin, and some of them threw in also green twigs plucked 
from the oak bushes around The grave having been filled and 
rounded over, the procession of mourners turned away, one by 
one, and gathered at the fence. By and by the praying man 
joined them, and as they slowly walked away he lined out a 
hymn, the sweet echoes of which are now coming back to me 
through all these dead and buried years — 
“And must this body die, 
This mortal frame decay ? 
And must these active limbs of mine 
Lie moldering in the clay ? ” 
