78 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
the current year is expected to give a very large increase in this 
direction. Many improvements have been carried out, among 
them the erection of a commodious chapel. Ground has been 
sold for the Ginter mausoleum, which is to be a commanding 
structure, and another granite vault is also to be erected. Slate 
graves are superseding brick in Hollywood. 
* * * 
The board of cemetery commissioners of Grand Rapids, 
Mich., have raised the wages of the men employed in the ceme- 
teries, to 15 cents per hour; all overtime and night work to be 
paid for at an advanced rate. The men had asked for an in- 
crease and the board met them half way. By the provisions of 
the new charter the board is allowed 10 percent, of the gross re- 
ceipts of the cemeteries as a fund, the income from which is to 
be used for the perpetual care of grounds. The total receipts for 
the last year were $12,045.39 of this amount $7,174 came from 
Valley City cemetery. The board will request the council at it’s 
next meeting to set aside $1,204.50 to the board to invest in trust 
funds. The board appears to have been doing excellent work, 
but they should agitate for a larger proportion of gross receipts, 
as 10 per cent, is inadequate for the purpose contemplated. A 
new office is to be built in Oak Hill, which will contain the offi- 
ces of the superintendent, toilet and waiting rooms. 
* * * 
A writer in the Washington, D. C., Star , says of the Mora- 
vian cemetery at Winston-Salem, N. C.: Tt is the burial place 
of the Moravians, a communistic religious organization, which 
exists there in very large numbers. The Moravians are a very 
desirable kind of people. They are strict in their religious views, 
it is true, but they are a determined, untiring and prosperous 
people. They all work and they owe no one a penny. In their 
cemetery, as in their life, they have a place for everything and 
everything in its place. At one end of the cemetery married 
men are buried and the opposite side married women. At the 
other end unmarried women, and on the opposite side the un- 
married men are buried. Each grave has a stone, but it contains 
nothing beyond the bare announcement of the name of the de- 
ceased, no date of death or age of the deceased being given in 
any case. Children are placed respectively on the male and fe- 
male sides of the cemetery, but there is no family grouping. 
| CORRESPONDENCE. | 
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Water Lilies. 
Editor Park and Cemetery , 
Dear Sir: I regret I did not see Park and Cemetery 
for April soon after it was issued. Unfortunately I did not see 
it until after the May issue and probably the June number will 
be at press before you receive this. Being interested in Aquatics 
I very naturally read the article on Water Lilies by your corres- 
pondent Geo. B. Moulder on page 26. I agree with most he 
says, but, my experience in this section of the country has been 
so very different from what his has been in Kentucky according to 
his statement, that I think for the benefit of your readers in so 
many and varied sections of the country, I would like to state 
my experience and also solicit statements from other growers in 
different sections, that we may profit by each other’s experience, 
and assist each other in the selection of suitable varieties. Mr. 
Moulder states on page 27: “Doubtless there is a greater number 
of failures in water lily culture arising from an undue knowledge 
in the selection of varieties than from any other source. — If tubs 
are to be planted, select plants adapted to tub-culture.’” — In 
f ubs any of the Nymphaea pygm aea, N. Laydekeri or N. Odo- 
r ata families may be grown well. The two former species and 
their varieties I have found satisfactory; not so Odorata. One or 
two are moderate growers but they are rambling growers and 
shy bloomers when confined to the limits of a tub, their proper 
place is in a natural pond, or in a fairly sized box in an artificial 
pond where they can remain undisturbed for two or three seasons - 
Mr. Moulder says: “Nelumbiums make fine tub plants,” 
especially N. Speciosum and N. album grandiflorum because, 
they have been under rigid cultivation in the Orient J or centur- 
ies!' What! as tub plants? Did the ancients actually grow 
Nelumbiums in tubs? (American kerosene oil barrels.) No, 
there is no such record: preposterous. They were cultivated in nat- 
ural ponds or sluggish streams, and the rigid cultivation they re- 
ceived did not change their character or make them adapted to 
tub culture, no more then Mr. M. can take a Nymphaea pygrmea 
and under rigid cultivation make it adapted to pond culture as 
is his gigantic Nymphaea superba. In another article where Mr. 
Moulder speaks so exultingly of N. alba grandiflora, he says: 
“It is a strong feeder and should have heavy rich earth.” Granted 
this is so and I’ve no doubt about it, how much of such soil can 
be placed in a half barrel allowing sufficient water? 
I have grown Nelumbiums in tubs and in most conceivable 
ways for years and I say emphatically, tub culture is the most 
unsatisfactory and unnatural method under which to attempt to 
grow them, they need abundance cf heavy rich soil and this can 
not be administered to them in half barrels. True, three or four 
flowers and possibly a half dozen might be had in a season, but 
I’ve seen Nelumbiums in tubs for two or three consecutive sea- 
sons and never a flower; just as they arrive at a stage that flow- 
ers are, or are about to be, produced the leaves assume a sickly 
greenish yellow and the plant is starved into a semi-dormant 
condition, tubers are formed and the plants are ready for a cold 
snap even early in August. 
Another word for Nelumbium alba grandiflora: I have grown 
this variety in New York and New Jersey states for ten years 
and it has never proved equal to its rival, the Egyptian Lotus or 
other Japanese varieties. I can give instances of tropical growth 
of N. Speciosum, but under cultivation especially in tubs and 
tanks, N. album grandiflorum and N. Luteum are in most cases 
most disappointing. 
Speaking of tender Nymphaeas for tubs, Mr. Moulder says, 
N. Mexicans N. Flava, and N. Gracilis are the BEST. My 
experience is that the flower is fairly good; it is a moderate 
grower and the flowers which are a rich yellow are produced in 
moderation quite third rate. It is hardy in the state of New 
Jersey. Nymphaea Flava is worthless, it makes good growth but 
seldom if ever a flower. It may be first-rate in its own native 
habitat, and in natural ponds. Nymphaea Gracilis is one of our 
best and free growing and flowering water lilies and will under 
fair conditions cover a surface of one hundred square feet, it 
should never be grown in a tub, unless the tub is submerged in 
an artificial pond. Grown in a tub it is simply dwarfed, it may 
exist and even produce flowers, but it is a greater distortion than 
to grow N. Zanzibarensis varieties which Mr. M. says may be 
dwarfed in tubs. Of these three best for tubs (?) two are yel- 
low and one white, and not one of these are first-rate for tubs. 
There are but few tender lilies suitable for tubs the best is N. 
Elegans and N. Columbia, the latter is the deepest crimson 
amongst the night bloomers. But we have numerous varieties 
amongst the hardy Nymphaeas including the richest and most 
varied in color — some blue, moderate growers and very free 
flowering, and it will be more satisfactory to grow them than to 
attempt to dwarf the strong growing varieties. Tubs are good 
receptacles for water lilies provided they are submerged in an 
artificial pond, the leaves require water surface space, N. Zanzi- 
barensis grown thus will produce leaves 22 inches over, which is 
about the diameter of a tub. 
Riverton, N. J. 
IV. Tricker. 
