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About the Author James Mandaville resided in Saudi Arabia for most of his life. His early work there for the Arabian American Oil Company (now the Saudi Arabian Oil Company) included research in tribal lore and geographical names for mapping programs and research on international boundaries. His interest in desert plant life and Bedouin plant nomenclature led to his extensive specimen collections for the Natural History Museum, London , and other herbaria. His publications include Flora of Eastern Saudi Arabia (1990) and numerous monographs on Arabian floristics and plant geography. As an undergraduate, he majored in Arabic at Georgetown University. His Ph.D. was in arid lands resource sciences at the University of Arizona, and he has worked as a consultant for a rangeland restoration project in Saudi Arabia. His other interests include trail riding on his Arabian horse, Sharif; building and operating an amateur radio station; and applying experimental electronics to geophysics, solar astronomy, and natural radioactivity. He also recently began taking lessons on the cello, which he describes as “properly humbling.” ...

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