J. Worth Estes 2007 Prize
Nicholas Rasmussen the winner of the 2007 J. Worth Estes prize received a print from a rare facsimile edition of the 6th Century Vienna Dioscorides (original in the Austrian National Library in Vienna)
Mekon Keratites (Yellow Horned Poppy)
Among the most beautiful and powerfully executed plant illustrations of the
Dioscorides manuscript is the folio page-filling horned-poppy or
hornpapaver, whose Greek name (mekon = poppy and keratites = horned) did
already refer to the horn-like bends of the fruits. It is an early
Mediterranean relative of the Glaucium flavium, which now grows wild. The
designation has become current through Krantz. It was introduced in older
botany as "cheledonium glaucis" by the English apothecary and doctor John
Hill (1716-1775), and as "glaucium luteum" by the Tyrol natural scientist
Johann Anton Scopoli (1723-1788). The Greek concept "glaukion" also
mentioned in Dioscorides refers to the bluish fur of the plant. The
Materia medica lists a number of symptoms like thalassion, paralion, pablum
marium, all of which point in the same direction. The decoction of the
root is here recommended for liver pains and the seed as a purgative; the
leaves in the form of a compress are supposedly useful to treat sores.
Internal use was seldom practiced later, but as late as the 18th century
poultices with this plant so rich with oil and minerals were used against
all sorts of swelling.