Yegor Semyonych Pesotsky

A horticulturist renowned throughout Russia, Kovrin's former guardian and mentor, and father of Tanya. He has poured his whole life into his celebrated orchard and nursery at Borisovka and is tormented by the question of who will care for it after his death, fearing above all that Tanya's marriage will hand the garden over to a careless son-in-law or hired strangers. He writes combative horticultural articles (bracketed with the Latin tags "audiatur altera pars" and "sapienti sat") attacking rival horticulturists, notably Monsieur Gauché. Delighted when Kovrin and Tanya's romance leads to marriage, he is nonetheless devastated by Kovrin's subsequent illness and the cruelty that follows the "cure," and dies -- according to Tanya's final letter -- not long after the marriage collapses, the garden passing to strangers exactly as he had always feared.