THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



them in blossom, and bed after bed of annual plants, producing 

 such a mass of color as I had never seen before except in Holland 

 during the tulip season, and in the Great Basin of California in 

 the blossoming time of sweet-peas and nasturtiums. 



Inquiry of a laborer led us down into a part of the garden 

 where we found the owner, who was introduced to me as M. 

 Theophile Gautier, I was dumb for a moment with the recollec- 

 tion of the brilliant author of "Le Capitaine Fracasse" and of 

 "Mile. Maupin," for here in front of me was apparently a horny- 

 handed peasant in rough corduroy trousers, belted, with sabots on 

 his feet, and a weather-beaten countenance and straggly brown 

 beard, but with eyes of keen intelligence. He greeted me cordially 

 and showed us about his place. We examined his stock and found 

 it clean and free from insects and diseases. I took his photograph, 

 standing in his field, and promised to send him a copy. He told 

 me that he was the originator of several new varieties of roses. 

 One of these he had named after the Czar of Russia, a fact 

 which had brought him a letter of thanks from his Imperial 

 Majesty. He cherished this document highly. 



We were pressed for time, so we soon left M. Gautier, marvel- 

 ling at his skill as a horticulturist, and the fact that a man of his 

 standing, and apparently so prosperous, should retain his peasant 

 costume and his little stone house and his extremely simple style 

 of life. 



On my return to America, I sent a copy of the photograph of 

 Gautier to M. Fermaud, but heard nothing further about it. Two 

 years later, in the summer of 1912, I again visited Angers, and, 

 in company with M. Fermaud's eldest son, once more visited 

 some of the stock plots of the Franco-American Seedling Com- 

 pany. I suggested to young Fermaud that we look up Gautier, 

 and so we did. He recognized me at once as the man who took 

 his photograph, and called his wife and introduced me. He 



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