PARK AND CEMBTERY 
460 
the seed-bearing trees could be as well planted as the 
other. 
It is curious to record of this deciduous tree that it 
is classed as a conifer; and it may be further said 
that botanical authorities of to-day make what was 
its common name, Ginkgo, its true botanical one, call- 
ing it Ginkgo biloba instead of Salisburia adiantifolia, 
under which name it has been so long known. 
It seems strange to add that it will not live outdoors 
in the North of England, though less cold than here, 
probably because its wood does not properly ripen 
there. Joseph Meeh.\n. 
A PARIS CEMETERY FOR DOGS, 
The bridge over the Seine between Clichy and As- 
nieres just outside the walls of Paris rests on a nar- 
row island. On one side of this island which rises 
about forty feet above the river is erected a monu- 
mental gateway, rather imposing in its architectural 
effect, that bears the inscription "Ciincticre des 
Chiens.” Attracted by the novelty of a burial place 
for dogs, you pay the guardian the equivalent of ten 
cents and are privileged to make the tour of the not 
very extensive grounds. They stretch away three or 
four hundred feet up the stream and have a width of 
eighty feet. Surrounded as they are by the willows 
growing on the sharply sloping banks, the place has 
a retired, park-like effect which suggests the ordinary 
cemetery. 
At first the idea of a cemetery for dogs and other 
domestic animals strikes one as being merely a freak 
of a people given to queer experiments, but after con- 
sideration there appears a reason for this, as every- 
thing else here which seems odd to the visitor. The 
dog is a very popular animal in Paris and it is estimat- 
ed that eighteen thousand of them die annually. By 
law the bodies of these dogs must be disposed of by 
/ their owners and by law they must be buried under 
forty inches of earth and at a distance of three hun- 
dred feet from any habitation. In a city of apartment 
houses this burial becomes in most cases an impossi- 
bility, and the dead animal is disposed of by being sur- 
reptitiously thrown into the river or dropped over the 
city wall. The projectors, then, were moved by prac- 
tical as well as sentimental reasons when they provid- 
ed a place for the burial of these animals. 
The cemetery consists of a terrace carried back 
from the entrance about one hundred and fifty feet, 
ornamented with some bronze casts of animals on low 
pedestals, and a large limestone monument to a cele- 
brated St. Bernard dog that saved in its time the lives 
of forty persons. Along one side are models of mon- 
♦ 
uments designed by the official monument maker of 
the company, who seems to have a monopoly of sup- 
plying the memorials, all orders being taken by the 
administration. There is a real cemetery effect of 
lawn, paths and flower-beds. Beyond the terrace on 
a little lower level is the burial ground, with its sec- 
tions, paths, large lots and single graves. There is a 
dog quarter, a cat quarter, a bird quarter. The burial 
lots regularly laid out in rows are about four feet by 
four feet, with paths between each row. Monuments 
of varied designs and price mark the graves and some 
of the lots are fenced with low wire borders, within 
which are flowers carefully cultivated. 
The monuments are all the work of the official mon- 
ument man, and have, necessarily, a certain poverty 
of ideas, as copying the forms of monuments erected 
to human beings is forbidden. Crosses are especially 
rigorously prohibited, and no names of personages 
can be inscribed upon the tombs as being those of the 
buried animals. The most successful tombs have for a 
motive a dog kennel. In some cases they are orna- 
mented with photographs, under glass, of the animal 
buried beneath. The inscriptions show the great 
place the dog occupied in the affections of these peo- 
ple. “To the memory of my dear Emma, April, 1889, 
August, 1900. Faithful companion and only friend of 
my life wandering and desolate” is cut on the monu- 
ment erected to her dog by the Princess de Cerchiari 
Picnatelli. On a prominent stone is the quotation 
from Pascal, “The more I see of men, the better I like 
my dog.” 
The following extracts from the rules will give one 
a hint of some things the management wished to 
avoid ; 
No ceremony is permitted at burials. 
No decorataions having the appearance of copying 
human burial rites will be allowed. 
Boxes enclosing the remains will be opened for veri- 
fication when brought to the cemetery. 
The lowest price for burial is one dollar. This 
sum merely pays for the disposing of the body with 
quicklime in a trench and the remains of the animal 
must be brought to the cemetery without any expense 
to the management. For three dollars the animal will 
be buried for three years without being disturbed ; 
for five dollars it will be placed in a coffin ornamented 
with an enameled name plate, transported to the ceme- 
tery in the company’s tricycle-hearse, propelled by a 
man in uniform and buried for five years. The lots 
are reserved for those who buy a long concession and 
agree to erect a monument. A concession for more 
than fifty years costs forty dollars. 
The cemetery is provided with a “receiving vault” 
which costs, to use, three francs per day. 
The material of the monuments is the fine cream 
colored limestone used so much here in buildings. 
There was one peice of gray granite with a polished 
top. Ora Coltman. 
