Peter René Oscar Bally (9 May 1895, in Schönenwerd, Switzerland – 26 July 1980, in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

) was a Swiss botanical illustrator, botanist and taxonomist. Peter Bally received formal training in neither taxonomy nor botanical illustration, but studied chemistry at first, a position with the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

taking him to

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

and

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

in 1923/24 in order to test a possible antidote for malaria. By 1930 he was working in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

for an oil company, and studying medicinal and poisonous plants of the region. His botanical interests led to a study of plants, with an emphasis on succulents, in the semi-desert areas of eastern Africa. By 1938 he had been appointed government botanist at the herbarium of the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi. He bought a small piece of land on the outskirts of the town and busied himself with constructing a house and establishing a garden of indigenous plants. By 1943 he undertook botanising expeditions to

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

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and

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. In 1960 he relocated to

Swaziland Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where ...

and worked on the genus ''

Aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering plant, flowering succulent plant, succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Acc ...

'' accompanied at one time by Gilbert Reynolds, the ''Aloe'' specialist. In 1957 he returned to Europe, working for some time on the Marnier-Lapostolle collection at the Jardin Botanique Lès Cedres in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and then for some 12 years at the Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique in Geneva. Returning to Kenya in 1969 Peter Bally indulged in his botanical interests, becoming a familiar visitor at the Coryndon Museum Herbarium renamed the East African Herbarium, and holding more than 700,000 plant specimens with field notes. Species named for him include: '' Adenia ballyi'', '' Aloe ballyi'', '' Ceropegia ballyana'', '' Euphorbia ballyana'', '' Euphorbia ballyi'', '' Euphorbia proballyana'', '' Kalanchoe ballyi'', '' Sansevieria ballyi'' and '' Echidnopsis ballyi'', also '' Ballya zebrina'' (Chiov. ex Chiarugi) Brenan which later became a synonym of '' Aneilema zebrinum'' Chiov. ex Chiarugi. He described numerous species in the genera ''

'', '' Caralluma'', '' Ceropegia'', '' Echidnopsis'', ''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...

'', '' Monadenium'', '' Pseudolithos'', '' Rhytidocaulon'', '' Sansevieria'', ''

Senecio ''Senecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus ''Senecio'' is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Description Mo ...

'' and ''

Stapelia ''Stapelia'' is a genus of low-growing, spineless, stem succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa with a few from other parts of Africa. Several Asian and Latin American species were formerly included but they have all now been transfer ...

''.

Publications

* ''East African Succulents''v.1-6 'Journal of East African Natural History' (1940–46) * ''The Genus 'Monadenium', a monographic study'' (1961) 'Southern African Plant Names' - Clarke & Charters (Jacana 2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bally, Peter René Oscar Swiss botanical illustrators Swiss taxonomists 1895 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Swiss illustrators