Reginald John Farrer (1880–1920) was an explorer, author, and plant collector best known for his books detailing his exploration of Europe and Asia. Due to weak health in his childhood he was privately educated, allowing him to devote his free time to exploring the local flora, sparking an interest in exploration and plant collecting. After pursuing an advanced education at Balliol College, Oxford, he began travelling the world and collecting plants that appealed to him, writing books that describe not only the beauty of the plants he found, but also his personal experiences in travelling. His writing tended to be more personal and casual than scientific, and as a result his books found popularity with general audiences and an amount of scorn from botanists. His most cited expedition was his 2 years spent in Kansu, north-western China, which he wrote about in On the Eaves of the World (1917).