HU Hsen-Hsu (胡先骕, courtesy name 步曾, Buzeng) was born in Xinjian, Jiangxi Province of China in 1894 (Fig. 1). He received a bachelor’s degree of biology from the University of California in 1916,a doctorate of applied biology from Harvard University in 1925. From 1918 when he started teaching in college until his death in 1968, in a half-century career Hu made foundational contributions to modern botany in China. He is widely regarded as the founder of Chinese plant taxonomy.