I lO 
PARK AND CEA\ETERY. 
far to meet questions now under serious discussion. 
We note however that the wonders of electricity 
have been brought into further use in funeral cere- 
monies, according to an eastern paper, wherein the 
phonograph acted as substitute for the clergyman 
in the funeral oration, a popular divine officiating 
through that instrument. This must be considered 
in the light of an experiment, and from many 
points of view of doubtful appropriateness. The 
substitution of the mechanical for human person- 
ality is a leap, the landing place of which is not yet 
apparent. 
T IIK relations existing between the lot owners 
of a cemetery and its officials are frequently 
more or less strained over the enforcement of 
rules and regulations that appear at first sight ar- 
bitrary. Similar conditions often result from the 
enacting of new rules. This slight friction has been 
more apparent of late and is chiefly due to the 
changes necessarily involved in the adoption of 
modern ideas in relation to the management of 
cemeteries. The old, unbusinesslike, go-as-you- 
please, methods so long prevailing, and which re- 
sulted in untidy, ill-planned and carelessly govern- 
ed grave yards, also resulted in a lack of discipline 
all round — lot owners and officials alike. The new 
order of things, beginning as was imperative with 
the officials, required a general overhauling of 
affairs and attention to long neglected laws and rules. 
Following this, when practical work was inaugurat- 
ed, an enforcement of rules was absolutely necess- 
ary to secure desired results, which in certain cases 
developed more or less opposition to what was con- 
sidered arbitrariness on the part of the management. 
As improvements proceed new laws are required 
which in the very nature of progress are necessari- 
ly definite and not of the dead-letter order. It 
must be assumed that the rules are adopted for the 
welfare of the lot owners, subserving their best in- 
terests as a whole; and that a wise management, 
knowing the penalty of lack of wisdom or integ- 
rity, will carefully consider the comfort of the 
lot owners as well as the interests of their property. 
All laws will then be enforced with forethought and 
consideration, and with lot owners properly educat- 
ed in the requirements and necessities involved in 
the highest development of their property, will 
cheerfully accede to conditions heretofore unknown 
to them. The education of the lot owner is a 
prime necessity of the modern plan of cemetery 
management, and every means available to the 
officials should be immediately exercised to that 
end. It lies principally with officers to avoid the 
reproach of “arbitrariness”, which should be a term 
obsolete in the cemetery lexicon. 
Botanical Gardens. 
The following is a revision by the author of an 
article, in the September issue of the Popular Sci- 
ence News, on a subject which is a pertinent one at 
present: 
The initial and very important consideration in 
the botanic garden is the site. Several of the finest 
gardens of the Old World have been permanently 
injured by a lack of foresight and common garden 
sense in the choice or want of choice in this respect. 
The sites should be chosen with reference chief- 
ly to their accessibility and adaptability. They 
should be approachable by road, river and railway, 
and adaptable not only in aspect and soil, but also 
in their topography, to the economical and clear 
arrangement of the hardy and exotic collections, 
which means not only that two-thirds of their sur- 
face shall be absolutely free of interfering growths, 
but that their contour be such that the ensemble of 
planting and building form a harmonious and se- 
quential whole. Mere picturesqueness of site is of 
minor consequence; it may often be commanded in 
conjunction, but should never be chosen at the ex- 
pense of other and far more important essentials; 
picturesqueness, indeed, is often synonymous with 
intractability of surface, and endless watchfulness of 
resources. The art of the gardener can produce 
much of picturesqueness from growth alone, but in 
a garden for instruction sequential beauty and fin- 
ished order is far more important. 
liducational plantings may be of any size, but 
the ideal site would be in a regular or irregular 
parallelogram of 300, 400, or more acres of good 
land gently sloping upwards from the banks of a 
navigable river, with public roads existing on, the 
sides or capable of construction, and with a railroad 
and fresh water stream in close proximity. 
If the banks of such river were so wooded that a 
mere thinning of the trees would convert the woods 
into pleasure grounds, and the remoter uphill port- 
ion consisted of cleared fertile farm land, with a 
small river or creek across the upper boundary, it 
would probably prove to be as happy a conjunction 
as could be selected for economy and felicitous ar- 
rangement. If 150 or more acres could be left in 
woodland pleasure ground, it would afford a site 
not only for the free pleasure of the people, but for 
the naturalization of a host of native plants which 
cannot properly be admitted within the precincts of 
the dressed grounds containing the select and classi- 
fied collections. The old Deer Forest at Kew has 
for fifty years been one of the most highly appreci- 
ated features, and encroachments upon it for arbor- 
etum purposes — necessitated by an entire want of 
system in the planting of the old garden — are often 
bitterly resented by writers in the London Times. 
