PARK AND CCMCTCRY. 
263 
Spergula, “scurry” ,\n\.wo or three species are plants 
of wide distribution. S.pilifera (Sagina now) attract- 
ed wide attention some years ago as a substitute for 
lawn grass, and although it dies out in places and 
becomes patchy, yet it is useful for grave mounds 
and similar positions where mowing is troublesome. 
Seed may be sown, or the plants divided and set 
three inches or so apart. It should be beaten with 
the spade to keep it compact, and of course wet. 
S. arvensis is naturalized in the Atlantic States. 
Portitlaca, “Purslane,” has twenty species widely 
distributed over the warmer parts of the world. 
PORTULACA GRANDIFLORA, FL. PL. 
They are mostly annual herbs. P. grandiflora and 
its double varieties are well known, and sometimes 
become wild. 
Claytonia, “Spring beauty,” has lo species dis- 
tributed over North America, North Asia and New 
Zealand. 
C. Virginica is usually found in moist woods, it 
is a beautiful little plant with pink flowers. 
Lezvisia in two species are natives. 
Tamarix has perhaps not more than twenty-five 
species distributed over the warm temperate parts 
of Northern Europe and Asia, and in South Africa. 
They are difficult to determine and identify. We 
appear to have three or four species in gardens flow- 
ering at different times. T. Gallica is the British 
kind, famous as a seaside shrub. They become 
trees under favorable conditions. The largest I 
have seen in the United States is on the Perrine 
properties at Trenton, N. J. It is quite thirty feet 
high, with a circumference of trunk of 3 feet 6 
inches at the ground, and 2 feet 8 inches at a height 
of 3 feet. It has been supposed to be T. tetrandra 
from its flowering in July, but this is at least open 
to doubt. The tree has suffered during the last 
three winters. 
Myricaria is a genus of four species from Eu- 
rope, Asia and the Himalayan regions, and is made 
to include tamarix dahurica, T. Germanica, etc., 
which are found (by the microscope) to be generic- 
ally distinct. 
Hololachnej?, a monotypic Central Asian genus 
of which I fail to find any account, and it is prob- 
ably not in gardens. 
Reaumtiria from the Island of Sicily eastwards 
through the Eastern Mediteranean regions to Cen- 
tral Asia, has twelve species of shrubby, evergreen 
plants with pink and purplish flowers. They are 
somewhat tender so far as known and tried in the 
south of England, but there can be little doubt that 
the Central Asian species would prove hardy in 
parts of this country. 
Fouqiiiera has three species but they are not 
hardy at the North. They extend from Mexico 
and are found within the United States. 
Trenton, N. J. Janies MacPJierson . 
Legal. 
LIMIT TO NOTICE GIVEN BY GRAVE. 
A grave, even it be protected by a fence around 
it, if located in a burial place, though such place is 
used only to a limited extent for general burial 
purposes, the supreme court if Illinois holds 
does not indicate or give notice of an appropria- 
tion or possession of more of the land than is with- 
in the inclosure. 
RIGHTS IN BURIAL PLACES. 
An important addition to the' meagre legal litera- 
ture on this subject is made by the supreme court of 
Alabama in a recent decision. 
It seems to be very generally agreed, says the 
court, that a dead body is not the subject of 
property right, and becomes, after burial, a part 
of the ground to which it has been committed. 
When one buries his dead in soil to which he 
has the title, or to the possession of which he is en- 
titled, there is no difficulty in his protecting from 
injury and insult by an action of trespass against a 
wrongdoer. 
But, bodies are most commonly interred in 
public cemeteries, where the parties whose duty it 
is to give them burial, are not the owners of the 
soil by deed properly e.xecuted, and have no higher 
right, than a mere easement or license. Of such 
it is held, that they do so under a license, and 
their exclusive right to make such interments in a 
particular lot, would be limited to the time during 
which the ground continued to be used for burial 
purposes; and upon its ceasing to be so used, all 
they could claim would be, that they should have 
due notice and an opportunity to remove the bodies 
to some other place of their own selection, if they so 
desire, or on failure to do so that the remains should 
be decently removed by others. 
Where one is permitted to bury his dead in a 
public cemetery, by the express or implied consent 
of those in proper control of it, he acquires such a 
possession in the spot of ground in which the bodies 
are buried, as will entitle him to maintain an action 
against the owners of the soil or strangers, who, 
without his consent, negligently or wantonly dis- 
turb it. This right of possession will continue as 
long as the cemetery continues to be used; but if, 
