Richard Evans Schultes was arguably this century"s foremost botanist and the father of ethnobotany--the study of plants and medicinal knowledge of indigenous peoples. He inadvertently inspired the 1960s drug culture with the publication of his scholarly journals on hallucinogenic plants. A meticulous scientist, his research on Columbia"s rubber-producing hevea trees led to America"s mass-production of rubber during World War II, which ultimately contributed to victory. Davis, one of Schultes"s most devoted students, recounts the great botanist"s life--from his research along hundreds of miles of forested rivers and his jungle treks while shattered by malaria to his intuitive gift with Amazon shamans and his relationship with such cult figures as Timothy Leary and William Burroughs.