David K. Ferguson was born in New Zealand, but grew up in Scotland. He studied Geology at St. Andrews University and Plant Systematics at the University of Liverpool before going on to specialize in Palaeobotany at the State University of Utrecht. In the course of this work, he realized just how many Eastern Asiatic plants once grew in Europe. Between 1969 and 1980 he worked periodically with Lucien A. Lauener on Chinese plants at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He first visited China in person in 1986, and has since fallen under the spell of this fascinating country. He currently collaborates with various Chinese universities and botanicalpalaeobotanicalinstitutes.From1992 until 2010 he was Professor of Palaeobotany at the University of Vienna. During this time he developed the idea of writing a biography about Robert Fortune 1812-1880, one of the first professional plantsmen to introduce ornamental plants from the Far East into Europe. Since 2007 the author has travelled widely, visiting as many of Fortune''s haunts as possible, in order to gain an insight into the plant hunter'' s experiences.