585
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_61
Chapter 61
Strange Connectors
61.1 The Search for Henbane upon Mount Athos
During 1934, Arthur William Hill (1875–1941), the curator for many years at the
Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew Gardens in southwestern London, was scouring
the slopes of Mount Athos, northern Greece, in search of various unusual plant
species when he and his two companions encountered a local Greek Orthodox
monk who was, himself, searching for henbane, based upon an antiquarian monastery copy of the five-volume Greek masterpiece, De Materia Medica (ca. AD
77), of the first century by Pedanius Dioscorides (40–90 AD), who first described
the plant to be a superb sedative, if mixed with mandragora. With its alkaloid scopolamine contents and intoxicating qualities, its “frenzies” were likened to drunkenness, a kind of “wine” according to Pliny the Elder, a congenial narcosis given
to hallucinatory outbreak, intimated Theophrastus.
1
Remarkably, this monk was
still relying on the botanical and pharmaceutical insights of a book which for
nearly 2000 years had been the most celebrated and republished work of science
in the world
2
(Fig. 61.1).
With 600 or more plants and animals identified by Dioscorides, he was able to
transform the study of nature into a purposeful, pain-alleviating enterprise that has
never been equaled. Linnaeus named the Genus Dioscorea after him. Today, the
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (updated in 2009) system recognizes some 715
species, including the yam, within the Dioscoreaceae family. As for Dioscorides’
homeland, the town of Anavarza in the Anatolian region of Cilicia Secunda, it was
destroyed in 1374 by the Egyptian Mamluks. The whole region was subject to the
1 See Pharmakon – Plato, Drug Culture, and Identity in Ancient Athens, by Michael A. Rinella,
Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham Maryland, 2010.
2 See “Travel Diary: Greece.” Ref: RM 9/10, 1934 Apr 8 – 1934 Apr 30, Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, Library and Archives, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11269987,
Accessed October 13, 2019.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_61
Chapter 61
Strange Connectors
61.1 The Search for Henbane upon Mount Athos
During 1934, Arthur William Hill (1875–1941), the curator for many years at the
Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew Gardens in southwestern London, was scouring
the slopes of Mount Athos, northern Greece, in search of various unusual plant
species when he and his two companions encountered a local Greek Orthodox
monk who was, himself, searching for henbane, based upon an antiquarian monastery copy of the five-volume Greek masterpiece, De Materia Medica (ca. AD
77), of the first century by Pedanius Dioscorides (40–90 AD), who first described
the plant to be a superb sedative, if mixed with mandragora. With its alkaloid scopolamine contents and intoxicating qualities, its “frenzies” were likened to drunkenness, a kind of “wine” according to Pliny the Elder, a congenial narcosis given
to hallucinatory outbreak, intimated Theophrastus.
1
Remarkably, this monk was
still relying on the botanical and pharmaceutical insights of a book which for
nearly 2000 years had been the most celebrated and republished work of science
in the world
2
(Fig. 61.1).
With 600 or more plants and animals identified by Dioscorides, he was able to
transform the study of nature into a purposeful, pain-alleviating enterprise that has
never been equaled. Linnaeus named the Genus Dioscorea after him. Today, the
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (updated in 2009) system recognizes some 715
species, including the yam, within the Dioscoreaceae family. As for Dioscorides’
homeland, the town of Anavarza in the Anatolian region of Cilicia Secunda, it was
destroyed in 1374 by the Egyptian Mamluks. The whole region was subject to the
1 See Pharmakon – Plato, Drug Culture, and Identity in Ancient Athens, by Michael A. Rinella,
Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham Maryland, 2010.
2 See “Travel Diary: Greece.” Ref: RM 9/10, 1934 Apr 8 – 1934 Apr 30, Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, Library and Archives, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11269987,
Accessed October 13, 2019.