During my studies on the family Amaryllidaceae I have come to admire the work of the Rev. William Herbert which revealed his great insight into the characters and relationships of this family despite his not having seen the species in their native habitats. I feel deeply honoured to have been awarded the Herbert Medal by the International Bulb Society and to be associated with his name.

I was born on 27 June 1949, in a small town east of Johannesburg on the South African Highveld. My name, Dierdre, was soon abbreviated to Dee to circumvent the difficulties of pronouncing and spelling it in full. At an early age I developed a great fascination for flowers. Initially these were the ornamentals in my parents' garden but later my interest extended to the wild flowers of South Africa because I saw their illustrations by Cythna Letty and Aruiol Batten, the first botanical artists whose work was easily accessible to me.

I was educated for most of my school life at the Blessed Imelda Convent in Brakpan where my major preoccupation as a teenager was competitive swimming, an interest which has dwindled since to the occasional summer dip in mountain pools while botanising.

After I obtained the South African Matriculation Certificate at Damelin College in Johannesburg I studied for my primary degree in science at the University of Natal's Pietermaritzburg campus. Because of my interest in the natural world I majored in Botany (and also Mathematics which didn't prove to be an abiding interest). During my practical classes I remember being particularly impressed by the flowering heads of Scadoxus, my first contact with the Haemantheae. I obtained a Masters degree here in 1973 and at the same time completed an education diploma (a misguided effort, as a year of teaching unruly children was to prove).

I joined the staff of the Compton Herbarium at the world famous Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden in 1974. Here I was fortunate to come into contact and work with some of the now legendary names in South African botany. Prof. R.H. Compton, even at the age of ninety, had just completed his floristic studies and still communicated his enthusiasm for systematics. Although already retired, Miss W.F. Barker provided me with an excellent example in the collection and curation of petaloid monocots. She had built up a substantial Haemanthus collection and I grasped the opportunity to embark on a revision of the genus. Dr. Peter Goldblatt and Dr. John Rourke were pivotal, providing me with gentle guidance in my work.

Plant systematics at the Compton Herbarium was practical and theoretical, and a major effort was made, and still is made, to study plant populations in their natural habitat. As a result, field trips became de rigeur and it was while collecting in the field with these experienced botanists that I came to appreciate fully the extraordinary diversity and grandeur of the southern African flora. Field expeditions took me to all parts of the southern African winter-rainfall area, often in the company of Pauline Perry who was revising Bulbinella (Hyacinthaceae) and Eriospermum (Eriospermaceae). A colleague later confirmed that the appearance of two unaccompanied women in the remote parts of Namaqualand had proved to be quite a novelty and that several years later the visit by the two "botanical ladies" from the Cape could still be remembered.

In all my travels the area which continues to be of special interest to me is Nieuwoudtville on the Bokkeveld escarpment. Here elements of the Succulent Karoo and Fynbos meet to form a mosaic of vegetation types with an exceptionally rich bulbous flora. My small contribution to the botanical exploration of the Nieuwoudtville region is commemorated in the name of a small, parsley-like plant with medicinal properties, Chamarea snijmaniae (Apiaceae).

The Genus Haemanthus was published in 1984. 1 was lucky in having one of South Africa's outstanding botanical artists, Ellaphie Ward-Hilhorst, to produce the colour illustrations for this revision -an association which I prized until her tragic death in 1994 and which strengthened my interest in botanical art in general.

A study of the little-known genera Hessea and Strumaria followed. This work formed part of a Ph.D. degree under the demanding but expert supervision of Prof. Peter Linder at the University of Cape Town. This introduced me to cladistics, now a familiar and indispensable tool, but at first a daunting intellectual challenge. It also focused my attention on the importance of phenology and reproductive biology in support of systematics.

Although I am now studying Spiloxene and Empodium in Hypoxidaceae, my interest in the Amaryllidaceae is still active. I am particularly intrigued by the pollination biology of Cyrtanthus, a genus with great horticultural interest which I would like to understand more fully.

On the 5th of February 1988 1 was married to Colin Paterson Jones, an organic chemist whose hobby was photographing South Africa's Proteaceae, and who shortly thereafter abandoned chemistry research to become a full-time nature photographer and writer. We live with two cats in Newlands, Cape Town, literally surrounded by the riches of this region's unique flora. Most of our leisure time is spent in the veld enjoying its natural treasures.