414 
PARK AND CE/nmCRY 
Association of American Cemetery 
Superintendents. 
G. W. CREESY, "Harmony Grove," 
Salem, Mass., President. 
ARTHUR W. HOBERT, "Lakewood," 
Minneapolis, Minn., Vice-President. 
F. EURICH, Woodlawn, Toledo, O., 
Secretary and Treasurer. 
Publisher’s Department. 
Park Commissioners and Cemetery 
trustees are requested to send us copies of 
their reports. 
Photographs and descriptive sketches of 
interesting features in parks and cemeter- 
ies are solicited from our readers. 
Back Numbers Wanted. 
S. H. Curtis, vice-presideut and secre- 
tary Harlington Cemetery, Waverly, la., 
desires to obtain the following numbers of 
Modern Cemetery: Volume i, Nos. i 
2, 3, 6, 10 and 1 1; volume 11 , Nos. i, 2, 4’ 
5. A reasonable price will be paid for 
any of the above numbers, or would ex- 
change with the following: Volume II, 
No. 10; volume III, No. 8; volume V, 
No. 5; volume VI, No. 4. 
Mr. Frank H. Nutter, landscape gar- 
dener, Minneapolis, Minn., was recently 
engaged in replanting and rearranging 
certain portions of Harlington Cemetery, 
Waverly, and Fairview Cemetery, Water- 
loo, la., and Mr. S. H. Curtis, vice-presi- 
dent, writes us that the work was done to 
“more than my entire satisfaction.” This 
is a gratifying recommendation of respon- 
sible services. 
Mr. Andrew Ross, superintendent, Ver- 
gennes, Vt., is desirous of obtaining sug- 
gestions for a four column entrance to his 
cemeteri . He is expecting to make such 
an addition to one of the entrances to the 
cemetery in the near future, and would 
appreciate any suggestive help that miight 
be accorded him. 
Oklahoma is progressing. The Okla- 
homa Agricultural, Horticultural and Irri- 
gation Society held a three days’ conven- 
tion at Perry, O. T., on December 8, 9 
and 10 last. 
Mr. F. W. Higgins, Detroit, Mich., su- 
perintendent of \Voodmere Cemetery, 
will read a paper before the meeting of 
the Michigan Marble and Granite Deal- 
ers’ Association, which will be held at the 
Hotel Normandie, Detroit, January 26 
and 27. The subject of the papers is: 
“Relations of Cemetery Superintendents 
to Granite Dealers.’’ 
A collection of excellent photographic 
views of Oak Grove Cemetery, Delaware, 
O., have been received from David Grin- 
ton, superintendent. 
RECEIVED. 
Illustrated Descriptive Pamphlet of 
Tennessee Centennial and International 
Exposition. Opens May 1st, 1897, closes 
Oct. 31, 1897. Nashville, Tenn. Bureau 
of Promotion and Publicity, Nashville, 
Tenn. 
Department of Parks, Paterson, N, J. 
Seventh Annual Report of the Board of 
Park Commissioners, 1896. Illustrated by 
half-tones. 
City of Cambridge, Mass., Park De- 
partment, Annual Reports, 1896. Illus- 
trated with photogravures. 
Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, 
Ind. A memorial volume of over 200 
pages, illustrated with numerous half 
tones, containing: Original Officers; List 
of Corporators; Introductory Article; Ar- 
ticles of Association, Rules and Regula- 
tions; List of Lot-Holders. 
Views in Harleigh Cemetery, Camden, 
N. J., with compliments of George E. 
Rhedemeyer, superintendent. This hand- 
somely illustrated souvenir comprises a 
number of half tone pictures of the promi- 
nent features, monumental and landscape, 
of Harleigh, bound in cloth. Copies may 
be had at 30 cents each from Mr. Rhede- 
meyer. 
Photograph of “View in Prospect Ceme- 
tery,” Vergennes, Vt. The photo shows 
a good class of granite memorials. 
Botanical Society of America. Botan- 
ical Opportunity. Address of the retiring 
president, William Trelease, Sc. D., Di- 
rector of the Missouri Botanical garden. 
Delivered before the Botanical Society of 
America at its second annual meeting, 
Buffalo, N. Y., August 21, 1896. 
The London Burial Grounds. 
Notes on Their History from the Ear- 
liest Times to the Present Day. By 
Mrs. Basil Holmes. Illustrated. New 
York, McMillan & Co. Chicago, 
A. C. McClurg & Co. Price $3.50. 
An interesting volume is this work of 
Mrs. Holmes on “The London Burial 
Grounds.” To read the introductory chap- 
ter, and note the difficulties encountered 
in gathering the information; hunting for 
evidences of a graveyard, which history 
records as existing, but which time has 
covered with aliving population, leadsone 
to ponder over the centuries through 
which the great city has continued to 
thrive, and on the various conditions 
through which its burial grounds have 
passed since history records its founding. 
Mrs. Holmes describes her difficulties. 
and in the ensuing chapters records the 
facts she has gathered. The following list 
of chapter heads gives a gcod idea of the 
scope of the work: British and Roman 
Burying Places; The Graveyards of Pri- 
ories and Convents; The Cathedral, the 
Abbey, the Temple and the Tower; The 
City Churchyard; London Churchyards 
Outside the City; Pest Fields and Plague 
Pits; The Dissenters’ Burial Grounds^ 
Burial Places of Foreigners in London; 
Hospital, Almshouse and Workhouse 
Grounds; Piivate and Promiscuous Ceme- 
teries; The Closing of Burial Grounds 
and Vaults; Graveyards as Public Gar- 
dens; The Cemeteries Still in Use; A 
Forecast of the Future. An appendix 
containing lists of burial grounds in exist- 
ence, and those which have disappeared, 
with other information, completes the 
work. 
One can picture to a certain extent 
what these old-style churchyards and bur- 
ial grounds are and have been, but there 
is a gruesome fascination in reading of the 
slow development which has attended the 
burial ground, together with the different 
conditions which have governed the ex- 
amples possessed by old London. Com- 
pared with our modern cemetery these 
old graveyards are strange anomalies. 
Even with the more modern cemeteries of 
London the authoress finds grave cause 
for criticism. She places herself on record 
on the subject of waste both in the line of 
memorials and modern funerals. There is 
much of historical interest in- this book, 
as well as a fund of suggestive material, 
which adapted to practical ends would 
tend to progressive work. 
The Spider Tree of Africa. 
Travelers who visited or passed the Cape 
Negro country of Africa often heard from 
the natives of a plant that was part spider, 
and that, growing, threw its legs about in 
continual struggles to escape. It was the 
good fortune of Dr. Welwitsch to discover 
the origin of the legend. Strolling along 
through a wind-swept tableland country, 
he came upon a plant that rested low 
upon the ground, but had two enormous 
leaves that blew and twisted about in the 
wind like serpents — in fact, it looked, as- 
the natives had said, like a gigantic spi- 
der. Its stem was four feet across and bu t 
a foot high. It had but two leaves in 
reality that were six or eight feet long and 
split up by the wind so that they resem- 
bled ribbons. This is probably the most 
extraordinary tree known. It grows for 
nearly, if not quite, a century, but never 
upward beyond about a foot, simply ex- 
panding until it reaches the diameter 
given, looking in its adult state like a sin- 
gular stool on the plain from ten to 
eighteen feet in circumference. 
When the wind came rushing in from 
the sea, lifting the curious ribbon like 
leaves and tossing them about, it almost 
seemed to the discoverer that the strange 
plant had suddenly become imbued v/ith 
life and was struggling to escape. When 
a description and picture of the plant were 
sent to England, it was, like many other 
discoveries, discredited, but soon the 
plant itself was received, and now Wel- 
witschia minabilis is well known to bota- 
nists. 
