160 GARDENING WITH BRAINS "^ 



over a collection of heaths, I was struck, to use 

 a vulgar expression, all of a heap, by seeing 

 what appeared to me a miniature cat's face 

 steadfastly gazing at me." 



The real Burbanks of the pansy were still to 

 come. In the middle 'seventies of the last cen- 

 tury three Frenchmen, Gassier, Bugnot, and 

 Trimardeau, specialized in this flower and got 

 results which astonished and delighted the 

 whole world, just as Henry Eckford did with 

 his new and improved sweet peas in England. 

 The names of these French pansy educators 

 are still preserved, as they should be, in our 

 catalogues of flower seeds. The Trimardeaus 

 are of immense size. Gassier achieved unique 

 results with blotches in threes and fives. To 

 Bugnot I feel particularly grateful for special- 

 izing in the new shades of reds and bronzes 

 which are among the most dazzling of all 

 pansies. The first cardinal flower I ever had 

 in my pansy bed was evidently admired very 

 much by somebody else, for on the morning 

 after the first blossom had opened the whole 

 plant had completely disappeared! 



CATS' FACES AND OTHER FACES 



Later hybridizers in several countries have 

 gone even beyond these Frenchmen in obtaining 

 larger and more velvety flowers, a greater variety 

 of delicate tints and spots and of queer faces in 

 the petals. In place of Thompson's "cats' 



