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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
AN EFFECTIVE COMBINATION OF SUCCESSFUL PLANTING OF THE AP- PLANTING AS THE BACKGROUND FOR 
VAULT, PLANTING AND WATER. PROACII TO A CEMETERY. FOREST A MONUMENT. 
HILLS CEMETERY, BOSTON, MASS. 
The recognized principles of landscape 
composition, either formal or informal, 
apply to cemetery work as well as to parks 
and other developments, but the application 
of these principles is subject to the limi- 
tations arising from the special needs in 
cemeteries. In a general way, we might 
say that the scale of the landscape effect 
is smaller in cemeteries than in other work. 
The stone work (monuments, head mark- 
ers, and mausoleums), which usually exist 
or will exist, limit the possible extent of 
open spaces and necessitate the subdivision 
of the blocks into lawn areas of compara- 
tively small extent (say 100 to 150 feet) 
and require screens wholly or partially 
separating each area from the next. In the 
case of sections where monuments, head 
markers, and grave mounds are to be kept 
level with the ground, a broader treatment 
can be adopted, more truly parklike. 
The bands of planting mentioned should 
follow irregularly the lot lines, forming in- 
teresting curves and recesses, which will 
catch the light and shadows. These screens 
should be of sufficient width to fulfill their 
purpose and may require a whole lot here 
and there to be reserved for planting. 
Planting reservations through the center of 
the blocks may be good in places, but it 
is often better to take certain lots at places 
with narrower connecting strips along the 
borders of other lots. A certain amount 
of planting on a lot does not necessarily 
hinder its sale. Many people wish to have 
shrubbery or trees on their lots and are 
only too glad to purchase one where the 
permanency of the plantation is guaranteed 
as a feature of the original or authoritative 
scheme. In the modern cemetery, lots must 
be sold subject to this adopted plan and, 
except perhaps in the case of very large 
lots, large enough to be a landscape unit 
in themselves, where special formal or in- 
formal developments may be designed as a 
setting for an important monument, the 
rights of the individual lot owners must be 
limited in order to maintain the unity and 
harmony of the scheme. -Without such 
limitations, a cemetery would soon become 
a maze of individual plantings wholly lack- 
ing in coherence ; such scenes as we are 
used to seeing in the old country grave- 
yards. 
One of the functions of the planting 
screens and groups is to give a background 
for the monuments. The tendency now is 
strongly toward limiting monuments. This 
is usually accomplished by prohibiting 
them, except on lots of a certain size. One 
of the best ways of regulating them would 
seem to be to allow monuments on cer- 
tain lots on the borders of the lawn areas 
where a suitable background of vegetation 
would be assured, and prohibit them (at 
least above the ground level) through the 
center of these lawn areas. The lots where 
monuments would be allowed could be de- 
termined as a portion of the original 
scheme and recorded on the plats. 
Vistas, ordinarily so important to an ex- 
tensive landscape, have to be used with cau- 
tion in cemeteries on account of the monu- 
ments. They are apt to become simply a 
monotonous continuation of stonework. 
Some such restriction as mentioned above 
might be exercised on the lots w-ithin the 
vista to keep the view open. A certain 
number of these glimpses focusing upon 
important buildings, monuments, or water 
areas should be included in the general 
plan and regarded in the planting scheme. 
A good border plantation of shrubs, ever- 
greens, and trees, giving privacy from ad- 
joining land or public highways, is essen- 
tial. This may sometimes be obtained in 
part, in a compact and economical way, by 
a heavy growth of vines on a suitable per- 
manent fence. 
Aside from the smaller flowering and 
ornamental trees used in the shrubbery 
groups, a certain number of shade trees, 
if not already growing on the ground, will 
have to be supplied. These should not be 
planted so thickly as to interfere with the 
A GOOD VISTA FOCUSING UPON A VAULT. FOREST HILL CEMETERY, KAN- 
SAS CITY, MO. 
