PARK AND CEMETERY. 
353 
Landscape Gardening in China. 
The Ch inese were believed to have possessed 
great skill in landscape gardeningfrom a very early 
period, though, if we are to judge from the illustra- 
tions on the famous “willow pattern” plates, there 
is some excuse for doubting the extent of that skill 
says Chamber s Journal. It is true that a very an- 
cient writer, Lieu-Tscheu, has some extremely sen- 
sible remarks on the pleasures of a garden, in the 
course of which he says: “The art of laying out 
gardens consists therefore in contriving cheerfulness 
of prospect, luxuriance of growth, shade, retire- 
ment and repose, so that the rural aspect may pro- 
duce an illusion. . . . Symmetry is wearisome and 
a garden where everything betrays constraint and 
art becomes tedious is distasteful.’’ But it was the 
letter rather than the spirit of Lieu-Tscheu’s advice 
that his countrymen followed when they elected to 
patronize the “natural” and the “picturesque”, and 
they soon reached a stage of cockneyfied imitation 
of nature which Horace Walpole himself could not 
have surpassed. 
In 1843 the Royal Horticultural Society sent 
out the eminent Scotch botanist, Robert Fortune, 
to visit these famous gardens of China— the land to 
which we owe the peony, the chrysanthemum, the 
azalea and the camellia. He was enchanted by the 
magnificent azalea-clad mountains of the Che- 
Kiang, one blaze of gorgeous bloom from foot to 
summit, but he sav/ little of the renowned landscape 
gardens, though enough to show him that much 
that was fashionable in English gardening was mere- 
ly a relapse into Chinese barbarism. Indeed, as a 
matter of fact, the hideous system of “bedding out,” 
which has in recent years been so popular in this 
country, is simply plagiarism from the Chinese. 
Those detestable cockney ribbon gardens, with 
their bands of red, yellow, and blue— a blaze of gor- 
geous but incongruous and inharmonious color — 
are a slavish imitation of Chinese taste — the taste 
to which we owe such artistic masterpieces as the 
“willow pattern’’ and the illuminated tea chest! 
Libellous Inscriptions on flonuments. 
A suit for damages on account of an inscription 
on a monument before a jury in the Circuit Court, 
Memphis, Mo., resulted in a verdict of $1,000 for 
the plaintiff. In December, 1890, some scholars at 
a country school in Knox county, Missouri, got 
into a difficulty which resulted in injury and subse- 
quent death to a boy named Coe. From the mass 
of evidence the grand jury indicted one of the par- 
ticipants for murder, but he was acquitted on trial. 
This exasperated the father of the Coe boy, a wealthy 
farmer, with a family burying ground on his farm, 
who afterwards erecting a monument to his dead 
son, had the following inscription cut on it: 
“Nathaniel S. Coe, son of E. M. and N. V. Coe, 
born Aug. 23, 1870; died Dec. 6, 1890. Died from 
violence of William and Jesse Wright with a club.” 
He did this, as he said, for the purpose of letting 
the people know what he thought of the matter. « 
When William Wright became twenty-one years 
of age he sued Edward M. Coe for libel, charging 
that the writing on the monument was false, malic- 
ious and libellous. 
Judge Ben. E. Turner, before whom the case 
was tried, held that the writing was a libel if false 
and malicious, and submitted the case to a jury un- 
der proper instruction. They found for plaintiff 
and assessed his damages at one thousand dollars. 
The case is a novel one and without a precedent 
that the court or lawyers could find. 
A motion for new trial was filed and overruled. 
The judge, however, thought that in view of all the 
circumstances that the verdict was excessive in 
amount, and required plaintiff to remit five hun- 
dred dollars of the verdict. This was done and 
judgment rendered for five hundred dollars which 
amount Mr. Coe arranged to pay. The objection- 
able part of the inscription on monument, however, 
Mr. Coe agrees to remove. If he fails in this he 
may again be sued for libel, for keeping and 
maintaining the libellous matter on his premises. 
^ Trees. 
Set out trees; adorn the homestead; 
Make it pleasant all around; 
Let the elms and oaks and maples 
With the evergreens abound; 
Let the home be so attractive 
That the boy that is today, 
When he shall arrive at manhood 
And in foreign lands may stray. 
Turn with longing heart and loving 
To his home those hilts among. 
Thinking how the trees are thriving 
Which he helped to plant when young. 
Set out trees along the highway: 
Place them thick on either side; 
In the present joyous springtime. 
Every one his part provide; 
Set out walnuts, chestnuts, beeches 
Where the playful squirrels come. 
In the hemlocks, firs and spruces 
Shall the song birds find a home. 
Let their branches, gro>ving, twining. 
Forming arches o’er the way. 
Shield the horse and screen the rider 
Through the long, hot summer day; 
Thick green leaves the golden sunshine 
Hiding while the dog star reigns. 
Then, when autumn paints them gayly. 
Carpeting the hills and plains. 
Set out trees, upon the common. 
Ashes, lindens, poplars, birch: 
Set them out around the schoolhouse: 
Place them thick about the church; 
Have the children’s playground shaded. 
And the public walks as well. 
And the joys from these arising 
Coming ages glad will tell. 
These shall live and grow and gladden 
While we molder ’neath their leaves. 
Let us, then, improve the present — 
Leave behind us priceless trees. 
— Annie G. Marshall. 
