“The book opens like a {{w|Travel literature|travel memoir}}, with the author trekking after native guides along a snake-infested trail through a {{w|rainforest}} in the wilds of {{w|Guyana}}. Then — after a plant-gathering side trip with an apothecary in 1629 into the wilds of Kent — we find her riding "with {{w|Kazakhs|Kazakh}} horsemen through the {{w|Tian Shan|Tien Shan mountains}} of {{w|central Asia}}". Clearly, it is a member of the band of intrepid English woman explorers who will be leading us through the taxonomical wilderness.”