34 , 4 .- 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
to use one as a receiving-chapel for its dead. 
As is the custom in modern burial places, the 
Forest Hill Cemetery at Utica had a chapel 
a place for the wagon-box.— (See page 343.) 
with ready access to the receiving-vault; this 
chapel was built of stone, and was found to be 
quite unsuited to holding funeral services dur¬ 
ing the winter months. In view of this diffi¬ 
culty, Mr. Thomas Hopper, one of the trustees 
of the cemetery, last fall conceived the idea of 
a combined chapel and conservatory, and at 
once prepared plans for a structure of this 
kind, an interior view of which is given below. 
The main body of the building is 80 x 36 feet 
on the ground, and 25 ft. in its greatest bight; 
in addition there is on each side a lean-to or 
wing, 10 ft. wide, 13 ft. high, and running the 
length of the main structure. In front there is 
a porch or covered carriage-way, where those 
who attend the funeral can alight without be¬ 
ing exposed in stormy weather. The main 
portion of the building, or auditorium, is ar¬ 
ranged for holding the last services ; movable 
seats, and all needed accessories being provid¬ 
ed. Under each wing or lean-to on the sides, 
there being no partition between these and the 
main building, is abundant room for the dis¬ 
play of rare and beautiful plants, which may 
be arranged differently, if desired, on each oc¬ 
casion. It is certainly a pleasing idea, to see 
all that is mortal of those, who in life were 
dear, pass to their final rest amid such sur¬ 
roundings ; but this is not the only view to be 
taken of such a chapel, and however soothing 
may be its effects upon the feelings of the be¬ 
reaved, its sanitary influences are still more 
important. The ordinary method of holding 
the services at the open grave in inclement 
weather, results in more serious consequences 
than most persons are aware of. Thousands of 
persons, especially those made feeble by their 
constant care of the deceased, contract disease 
which ends in death, by standing on frozen or 
snow-covered earth during the often too pro¬ 
longed funeral services. In the usual stone 
chapels the case is not much better; being used 
only occasionally, they are but partially warm¬ 
ed, even when heated at all, but in the conser¬ 
vatory chapel, the heat required to keep the 
plants in good condition, makes the place 
always ready for funeral services. The 
Cemetery Association 
of Utica have the ser¬ 
vices of Mr. Roderick 
Campbell, a young 
man of education and 
intelligence, with an 
excellent knowledge 
of landscape garden¬ 
ing jmd horticul¬ 
tural matters in gen¬ 
eral. We learn that it 
is the intention of the 
association to provide 
houses in which pi ants 
may be grown for 
the decoration of the 
grounds of the ceme¬ 
tery. Of course the 
floral decoration of 
cemetery grounds is 
nothing new, it being 
carried to remarkable 
extent at a cemetery 
with the same name 
—Forest Hill — near 
Boston, where there 
are ample facilities for 
producing the plants; 
but the credit of the 
valuable idea of com¬ 
bining a chapel and 
conservatory is, so far 
as we are aware, entirely due to Mr. Thomas 
Hopper, of the Utica Cemetery Association. 
Pine Barren Plants—The Turkey’s Beard. 
The pine-barrens of Hew Jersey are tracts of 
sandy soil, covered with scrub pines and oaks, 
which extend through the sea¬ 
board counties of the state. 
While they have long been a 
locality of great interest to 
northern botanists, their vegeta¬ 
tion is so peculiar that the most 
indifferent must notice the un¬ 
usual forms it presents. The 
Hew Jersey barrens have many 
plants that are elsewhere to be 
found only in the pine barrens 
of Horth Carolina, and south¬ 
ward, but instead of being, as 
formerly, the “ Mecca of bota¬ 
nists,” as'good Doct. Torrey 
used to call it, this region is 
now penetrated by a railroad, 
and the passengers get a glimpse 
of the plants which grow there. 
In various parts of the barrens, 
and especially visible from the 
road, in the vicinity of Man¬ 
chester, are to be seen in May, 
great quantities of a most strik¬ 
ing plant, about which wc have 
had inquiries, and which is re¬ 
presented in the engraving. If 
asked its name, a few weeks 
ago, we should have been 
obliged to answer that Xero- 
j phyllum asphodeloides was the 
only name it had. How we 
yield to none in our apprecia¬ 
tion of the importance of 
botanical names, and hold that they should 
be used when appropriate. We also ap¬ 
preciate the importance of definite common 
names. We are well aware that the pre¬ 
judice against botanical names is unreason¬ 
able, and do not think they are any more diffi¬ 
cult to remember and to use, than others, if 
one really cares about plants; yet the prejudice 
exists, and instead of ridiculing it, we think 
botanists, if they would humor this feeling, 
would induce many to study their science, who 
are now repelled by the “hard names.” Com¬ 
mon names are very loosely applied, some 
plants have several, and there are a number of 
common names wffiich are used for several very 
different plants. The botanist who will take 
the trouble to revise the popular nomenclature 
of our native plants, and give it form and defi¬ 
niteness, will do a useful work. After this di¬ 
gression, to come back to our plant; Xerophyl- 
lum , the name of the genus, is from the Greek 
words for arid or dry, and leaf; the specific 
name, asphodeloides , means resembling the As¬ 
phodel, a garden plant much better known by 
our grandmothers than it is by us. To make a 
common name out of the botanical one, it would 
be Asphodel-like Dry-leaf,, which would not 
be very smooth, or more easily remembered 
than the botanical name itself. We were a 
while ago about to describe the plant, and had 
fixed upon “Pine-barren Asphodel” as the 
most suitable common name for it, when one 
of our associates, who had just been to the bar¬ 
rens, informed us that it already had a local 
name, and was known at home as “Turkey’s 
Beard.”—There might be a more pleasing 
name, but as it has the sanction of priority and 
local usage, there is no good reason why it 
should not be accepted, and stand. This name 
was no doubt given from the resemblance of 
the narrow dry leaves, to those long coarse 
bristles which form a conspicuous tuft upon 
the breast of a mature turkey-cock. The 
plant is a perennial, with a bulbous base, bear¬ 
ing a tuft of persistent leaves, which are a 
INTERIOR OF CONSERVATORY CHAPEL, UTICA 
foot or more long, very narrow or needle- 
shaped, rough on the margins, and remarkably 
