In honor of this year's Cambridge Discovery Days we invite you to join us for the following free walking tours of Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Join us on Saturday, August 11 at 4:00PM for "Longfellow and Friends: A Poetry Walk at Mount Auburn Cemetery". Strolling through Mount Auburn, we will visit the graves of Longfellow and his circle of friends while reading some of their poetry along the way.

Join us on Saturday, August 18 at 4:00PM for "Mount Auburn: A Muse to our Nation's Writers" a walking tour celebrating the work of poets inspired by the Cemetery. Over its 175-year history, numerous authors and poets - James Russell Lowell, Robert Creeley, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Fanny Fern among others - have taken inspiration from the beauty of Mount Auburn.

Please register online for these and other programs at Mount Auburn.

Cambridge Discovery Days are held each summer in celebration of Cambridge's history with free walks, tours and events taking place throughout the city. For more information about Cambridge Discovery Days and a complete listing of events, visit http://www.cambridgema.gov/historic/walks.html.

A native to China and Korea, this tree is often planted near Buddhist temples in Japan where it has become known more widely in English as the Japanese Pagoda Tree or the "Scholar Tree."

See the showy late-summer display of long, weeping clusters of greenish-yellow flowers growing on the Styphnolobium japonicum near the intersection of Magnolia Avenue, Vinca Path and Citron Avenue in the Cemetery.

Number 105 on Mount Auburn's "Most Unusual Trees" map, the Japanese Pagoda Tree is said to make an excellent bonsai specimen and has reportedly been selected by the residents of Beijing to represent the theme of the "Green Olympics" in 2008.

Learn more about Mount Auburn's horticultural collections.

Join David Barnett, Mount Auburn's Vice President of Operations & Horticulture, Robert H. Stymeist, Brookline Bird Club's statistician and Bird Observer's bird sightings compiler, and Marj Rines, naturalist, Massachusetts Audubon Society, for a walking tour to learn how and why Mount Auburn has remained a significant animal habitat and what is currently being done to make the Cemetery even more attractive to birds, butterflies and other wildlife.

Bring binoculars, if you have them. This event is free to the public. Please register online or call 617-607-1995 to reserve a space for this special tour.

In the case of severe weather, the alternative date is Wednesday, August 8th. Call 617-607-1983 for weather-related updates.

In the May edition of our e-letter we reported on a new project now under construction here at Mount Auburn, Birch Gardens, a unique new burial space expected to be completed during the summer of 2008.

Designed by Halvorson Design Partnership, Birch Gardens will be an innovative and elegant addition to Mount Auburn's landscape, consisting of seven-foot high, 16-inch thick granite panels connected by ornamental iron fencing, all weaving through a variety of woodland plantings both inside and outside the burial garden.

Since we last reported on the project, all concrete footings have been completed and the base stones are being fabricated. We anticipate the initial shipment of base stones during the first week of this month. Laying down the base stones requires precision and will appear to be a slow procedure; however that precision will result in a fairly quick installation of the memorial panels on top of the base stones. We expect the installation of all granite panels to be completed by the end of this fall, and the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs to be completed next spring.