December 1998 
! 5 
paid to do so, but went to Africa to visit friends, and 
stayed on, starting her long series of over 25,000 
numbers when she was already 68 
Her early life was lived in West Wales, to which 
she returned before she died in 1977 This short review 
is written to alert botanists and East African naturalists 
to an account of her life. 
William Condry's biography is based on their long 
friendship and on her diaries to which her family gave 
him unrestricted access. This was his last book, and 
happily he saw a copy of it just one week before he died 
in May, 1998. Bill was a famous naturalist of Wales, 
humble in himself but loved and respected by all who 
knew him He was a school teacher of classics who left 
that profession to devote himself to conservation and 
writing. Amongst other works he wrote the Collins New 
Naturalist volume on the Natural History of Wales 
(1981). 
Over half of the book is a description of Mary's 
collecting safaris in Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, w ith 
many references to her assistants and acquaintances 
during the period. There are 16 colour pages, each with 
two or four pictures, and these are beautifully prepared 
and printed. There are portraits of All Omari, Mhilu 
Abdallah, Edward Robinson. Samuel Arasulula, Bill 
Morony and Penny Condry. Above all, there are many 
photographs of Dr Desmond Vesey-Fitzgerald who 
helped and accompanied Mary on most of her safaris. 
Bwana Vcscy’s work is revered by all East African 
ecologists, and his death in Peter Greenway’s house at 
Limuru near Nairobi sadly coincided with Mary’s final 
return to Wales. 
This book is a fragment of the history of East African 
botany, a testament to the prodigious drive of a 
septuagenarian Edwardian lady, and a reference to the 
loci classic i of the many new species which she found 
It is a fitting tribute to Mary Richards, Bill Condry and 
Bwana Vesey. 
Andrew Agnew 
Garth House, Furnace, Machynlleth, l\)wys SY20 8PG, 
Great Britain. 
NOTICES 
Request for Papers 
The Editor is finding it more and more difficult to gel 
an issue of the Bulleiin out on time. This had previously 
been because of production problems, but things have 
changed and the problem is now, basically, because of 
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Box 10018 Bamburi Post Office, Mombasa, Kenya, 
E-mail : LADepew@africaonline.co.ke 
E-mail attached files or text within an e-mail message 
are most welcome 
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