PARK AND CEMETERY. 
1 1 
care for them than to mow the grass. I wish I might 
include in the list of desirable plants our various 
violets, trilliums, adders tongues, hepaticas, lilies, 
gentians, and all other flowers we are so glad to see 
in our strolls through the country. The window of 
a railway car is an excellent place from which to 
study what might be used. One does not then have 
an opportunity to pick the beautiful flowers he sees, 
and so they are left to grow year after year. They 
will grow quite as readily near our homes if given a 
chance. Among the flowers of which I have seen 
large areas that made me wish that the train would 
not go so fast, are many of those already mentioned, 
of which I recollect particularly, wild roses, our na- 
tive lilies, lupines, painted cup, some of the milk- 
weeds, golden rods, gentians, elderberries, and our 
wild sunflowers. I admit that we are not yet suf- 
ficiently cultivated to enjoy all the beauty that one 
can imagine, but I believe the time has arrived when 
* 
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AT VARIOUS GRADES. 
we can make use of a far greater variety of plant 
growth than we are accustomed to see along our 
street borders. The common shrubs are not only 
beautiful in themselves and make the parkway pic- 
turesque, but they help to give seclusion to the 
residences on either side and also to the walks, and 
even to the driveway. We live too close together 
in our cities, and anything that tends to separate 
us a little more should be encouraged. I heard 
Prof. Allen say that, on the average, families in 
cities become extinct in three generations. The 
cities have to be replenished with people from the 
country, as well as supplied with the various other 
products of the farm. May it not be possible, that 
by bringing in a little of the beauty of the country, 
and by so arranging the things we plant for this pur- 
pose as to give a little more seclusion, we may add 
not only to the enjoyment of our citizens, but also 
somewhat to their vitality. 0. C. Simonds. 
One of the curious forest growths of the Isthmus 
of Panama and Lower Central America in general 
is the vine which the Spaniards call matapalo, or 
“tree-killer.” This vine first starts in life as a clim- 
ber upon the trunks of the large trees, and, owing 
to its marvelously rapid growth, soon reaches the 
lower branches. At this point it first begins to put 
out its “feelers” — tender, harmless-looking root 
shoots, which soon reach the ground and become 
as firmly fixed as the parent stem. These hundreds 
of additional sap tubes give the whole vine a re- 
newed lease of life, and it begins to send out its 
aerial tendrils in all directions. These entwine 
themselves quietly around every limb of the tree, 
ever creeping to the very farthermost tips and 
squeezing the life out of both bark and leaf. Things 
go on at this rate but a short while before the for- 
est giant is compelled to succumb to the gigantic 
parasite which is sapping its life's blood. Within a 
very few years the tree rots and falls away, leaving 
matapalo standingerectand hollow, like a monster 
vegetable devil fish lying upon its back with its hor- 
rid tentacles clasped together high in the air. Core- 
like arbors of matapalo are to be seen in all direc- 
tions, each testifying to the lingering death of some 
sylvan giant that formerly supported it. — Informa- 
tion. 
