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News & Events, November 2010
Dear Friend,
The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to present the November 2010 edition of our electronic
newsletter. We invite you to join our email list to receive this mailing on a monthly basis. To
address book today.
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 Friends of Mount Auburn November Programs
There are plenty of reasons to visit us this November. Take advantage of the remaining nice weather with a walk through the Cemetery. Many of our trees and shrubs are currently turning jewel-tone shades of red, orange, yellow, and purple, making a perfect backdrop for any exploration of Mount Auburn. Maps, self-guided brochures; and audio tours are available for purchase at our Visitors Center daily from 9 AM to 4:30 PM. Stop at the Egyptian Revival Gatehouse and check the Bird Sightings board for the most recent wildlife sightings. And, while you are there, make sure you take some time to explore our new interactive kiosk!
Attend one of our exciting public programs this month. From history to horticulture to notable figures, our November schedule of events offers something for everyone:
Visit us online to see our entire schedule and register for any of these upcoming programs.
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 Thank you Friends Members!
It was wonderful to see so many of our members during Members Week (October 17 - 23) and hope that you were able to take advantage of the special Members' Week incentives at the Cemetery and beyond. If you were not able to make it to the Fruitlands Museum during Members Week, you still have time! The Fruitlands Museum has extended its offer of free admission for our members through the end of the year. To receive free admission, you must show your Friends of Mount Auburn membership card at the time of your visit. Membership in the Friends of Mount Auburn provides valuable support for the preservation and interpretation of this National Historic Landmark. Among the benefits of membership, Friends receive reduced admission to our programs, invitations to special Members Events, and copies of our magazine Sweet Auburn. If you are not already a member, consider joining today!
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 Horticultural Highlight: Quercus
Sing for the oak tree,
The monarch of the wood,
Sing for the oak tree
That groweth green and good;
That groweth broad and branching
Within the forest shade;
That groweth now and yet shall grow
When we are lowly laid!
The oak tree was an acorn once,
And fell upon the earth;
And sun and showers nourished it,
And gave the oak tree birth.
The little sprouting oak tree!
Two leaves it had at first,
The sun and showers nourished it,
Then out the branches burst.
The little sapling oak tree,
Its root was like a thread,
Till the kindly earth had nourished it,
Then out it freely spread;
On this side and that,
It grappled with the ground.
And in the ancient rifted rock,
Its firmest footings found.
The winds came and the rains fell;
The gusty tempest blew;
All were friends to the oak tree,
And stronger yet it grew.
The boy that saw the acorn fall,
He feeble grew and gray;
But the oak was still a thriving tree,
And strengthened every day.
- Mary Howitt
Oak trees belong to the genus Quercus, which is Latin for oak tree. This is a diverse genus including over 600 species (90 native to North America) of trees and shrubs, mostly deciduous along with some that are evergreen, which are primarily native to the Northern Hemisphere but also extend into the mountains of Columbia and into the Indian Archipelago.
The well known acorn, the autumn fruit of the oaks, is a nut enclosed on top by a cup-shaped cupule made of a number of small scales which attaches the acorn to branch stems. The acorns in the white oak group mature in one season while those of the black oak group mature over the course of two years. Today these acorns provide food for numerous species of mammals and birds and historically countless humans obtained sustenance from these nuts.
Mount Auburn has a nationally recognized collection of oaks including representatives of twenty-two different species with additional cultivated varieties among our 450 oak trees. There are three dozen oaks here as well, believed to be over 200 years old, that pre-date our 1831 founding.
In our cultural heritage the scarlet oak, Quercus coccinea, was one of the first trees that the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower set eyes upon when entering Massachusetts Bay in 1620. Wood of the white oak, Quercus alba, was used in constructing portions of the U. S. S. Constitution today berthed at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The red oak,Quercus rubra, one of the important lumber trees of our region was used in building countless historic and contemporary homes in New England. The pin oak Quercus palustris, today is found as a common street tree enhancing almost every city and town in Massachusetts.
Each of these species of oaks, as well as others unmentioned, provide autumn color in the November landscape after the leaves of other deciduous trees have already fallen. Fall color ranges from yellow to burgundy to red, with some holding their then tan leaves into December. The noted horticulturist Ernest Henry Wilson (1876-1930) stated it best, "To speak of the autumn glories of the oaks is like trying to gild the lily."
On your next visit to Mount Auburn be sure to appreciate the splendor of our noble oaks. Paleobotanists have traced the origin of the oak to 65 million years ago. The uses of oaks include almost everything that humankind has ever derived from trees; lumber, food for man and animals, fuel, watershed protection, shade and beauty, tannin and extractives, and cork. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that the oak was the first tree that grew upon the earth and was the tree of Zeus or Jupiter, the King of Gods. Since these early times the oak in many cultures has been equated with strength and permanency. In contemporary times the oak has been chosen as the national tree of the United States, England, France, and Germany among numerous other nations. There are several states which have designated oaks as their state trees.
Oaks are often divided into two main groupings, the white oak group and the black oak group. One distinguishing difference is the shape of the lobes on the leaves. The white oak group often has rounded lobes and leaf margins [edges] while those in the black oak group generally have pointed lobes or margins tipped with small pointed teeth or bristles.
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Come experience the beauty of autumn at the Cemetery and join Visitor Services Assistant Jim Gorman on a walk to survey our oaks, the Monarchs of Mount Auburn - Sunday, November 14, 1 PM
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 Wildlife at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)
This striking beauty has been seen spending time at Halcyon and Auburn Lakes recently. The male is unmistakable with his puffy, rounded crest with large white patch, outlined in black and gold eyes. Females, on the other hand, have a bushy brown crest.
Mergansers are small, fish-eating diving ducks with a long thin bill serrated on the sides. As we head into winter, they will become more common on woodland ponds like Auburn Lake.
Check the Bird Sightings board in the Entrance Gate area for recent sightings!
*Photo of Hooded Merganser by Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery Volunteer, Helen Abrams at Auburn Lake, 10/30/2010 _________________________________________________________________ |
 Person of the Month: Asa Gray
This month marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of preeminent 19th century American botanist Asa Gray.
Gray(11/18/1810 - 1/30/1888), the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard, built the University's botany department and trained many of the leading botanists of the next generation. His home, part of the Harvard Botanical Garden, was visited by scientists from all over the world.
He was a pioneer of the study of plant geography, and his comparisons of the botany of Japan and North America demonstrated his insight and breadth of mind. He corresponded internationally, and Darwin sent an advance copy of his book on the origin of species.
Gray readily grasped how Darwin's theory explained the similarities and differences he observed in comparing the plants of Japan and New England. Although Gray's fellow Harvard professor Louis Agassiz (Lot 2640, Bellwort Path at Mount Auburn) refused to credit Darwin's ideas, Gray was able to see that Agassiz's theory of glaciation could explain how plants in different parts of the world could share common origins but diverge after being pushed apart by the spread of the glaciers. Gray was Darwin's foremost American advocate, while Agassiz never accepted Darwin's theory of evolution.
Asa Gray is buried in Lot 3904, Holly Path at the Cemetery.
Photo: View from above Asa Gray Garden at Mount Auburn Cemetery. At a Trustee meeting on Christmas Eve 1942, the Trustees of Mount Auburn Cemetery voted to change the name of the area pictured above from Lawn Avenue Garden to Asa Gray Garden in honor of the noted 19th-century botanist buried at Mount Auburn.
with Volunteer Robin Ray and Visitor Services Assistant Jim Gorman, in Story Chapel (free). Or learn more about Asa Gray's Lasting Legacy during a Special Members Event with Donald Pfister, Asa Gray Professor of Botany and Director of the Harvard Herbaria, on Saturday, November 20. Following a light breakfast, participants will enjoy a walk through the Cemetery to visit the graves of Gray and his colleagues while examining some of the plants thriving at Mount Auburn that played important roles in Gray's research. (A light breakfast will be served for participants at 9:30 AM in Story Chapel). This event is free for members, but pre-registration is required.
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 November History Highlight:
A Birthday Present to Asa Gray - November 1999
After a large snowstorm in 1997, which caused the destruction of several large ornamental trees as well as damaging other trees and shrubs, Asa Gray Garden needed refurbishment. An unexpected opportunity, seized by former Mount Auburn president Bill Clendaniel in the summer of 1999, led to a new landscape in the Garden.
Renovations to the courtyard of the Boston Public Library required the removal of four 27- year old Japanese Maple trees planted there by the ladies of the Garden Club of the Back Bay. President Bernard Margolis of the Library offered the trees to the Cemetery, but the cost to remove them was $40,000.
Clendaniel initiated a fund raising campaign that, in a few short weeks, raised the necessary funds thanks to the generosity of over 300 contributors, including many members of both the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Garden Club of the Back Bay.
On November 12, 1999 the four trees, each weighing five tons, were hoisted six stories over the roof of the Library to waiting trucks and on November 18, 1999, serendipitously the birthday of Asa Gray, placed in Asa Gray Garden. Eleven years later those trees are still healthy and are a focal point in the garden. View photos of the tree move.
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Beyond Our Gates: A Program of Interest in the Community
Attention gardening enthusiasts - The Massachusetts Horticultural Society will present a day-long lecture series on Garden and Landscape History at its Elm Bank headquarters. Among the day's panelists is Mount Auburn's own Dave Barnett.
The symposium will hosted by John Furlong, FALA, emeritus director, Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum, with speakers such as Allyson Hayward, author of Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer, Mount Auburn's President & CEO David Barnett, Ph.D., garden historian Elizabeth S. Eustis, and author of Boston's Gardens & Green Spaces, Meg Muckenhoupt.
For complete program details and to register visit MassHort.org. |
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 Friends of Mount Auburn programs are funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery was established in 1986 as a non-profit educational
Mount Auburn Cemetery is still a unique choice for burial and commemoration. It offers
a wide variety of innovative interment and memorialization options for all. Learn about
Mount Auburn's many burial and memorialization options. |
Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
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email: friends@mountauburn.org
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