Peter René Oscar Bally

Swiss botanist (1895–1980)

N.E.Br.

Peter René Oscar Bally (9 May 1895, in Schönenwerd, Switzerland – 26 July 1980, in Nairobi) was a Swiss botanical illustrator, botanist and taxonomist.^[1] The standard author abbreviation P.R.O.Bally is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[2]

Peter Bally received formal training in neither taxonomy nor botanical illustration, but studied chemistry at first, a position with the

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:

• East African Succulentsv.1-6 'Journal of East African Natural History' (1940–46)
• The Genus 'Monadenium', a monographic study (1961) [3]

References