A Modern Library Paperback Original
During the first years of the twentieth century, the British plant
collector and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward went on twenty-four impossibly
daring expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia, in
search of rare and elusive species of plants. He was responsible for the
discovery of numerous varieties previously unknown in Europe and
America, including the legendary Tibetan blue poppy, and the
introduction of their seeds into the world's gardens. Kingdon Ward's
accounts capture all the romance of his wildly adventurous expeditions,
whether he was swinging across a bottomless gorge on a cable of twisted
bamboo strands or clambering across a rocky scree in fear of an
impending avalanche. Drawn from writings out of print for almost
seventy-five years, this new collection, edited and introduced by
professional horticulturalist and House & Garden columnist Tom
Christopher, returns Kingdon Ward to his deserved place in the
literature of discovery and the literature of the garden.