An ornithologist and a botanical artist, Mike and Liz Fraser lived at the Cape for twelve years, marvelling at the wild flowers and retracing the journeys of the first European plant hunters to visit this ‘botanical treasurehouse’. Illustrated with drawings, watercolours and colour photographs, their book begins with the early Portuguese and Dutch explorers and includes Kew’s first international collector, Francis Masson, as it follows the history of botany and botanical exploration at the Cape up to present-day research at Kirstenbosch.