Meco[nop]sis betonicifolia

Glass slide, probably taken by either Lord 'Jack' Cawdor or Frank Kingdon Ward. Numbered: 64 (green circular sticker). Title on slide: Mecopsis beton[portion of label missing]. Note: it is presumed that the botanical name Meconopsis betonicifolia (the Himalayan blue poppy) was intended. The plant is also named, less-commonly, Meconopsis betonicifolia Baileyi. Image features: Vertical image, showing several poppy blooms from large leaf base. Label (latter portion missing): James A Sinclair [& Co Ltd, Lantern Slide Makers, London]. Copy negative, contact sheet and low contrast 'postcard' print made (2004).

For background, see Bailey, No Passport to Tibet (1957), pp. 113-14, where Bailey notes a diary entry for July 10th, 1913, in which he records "blue poppies I had not seen before." He continues: "Though it was the first time I had seen the blue poppy which has become the Meconopsis Baileyi, I had previously seen many different blue poppies in Tibet, and many of them beautiful, though not so beautiful as these ... It was not until 1924 that the plant-hunter Captain Kingdon Ward, who had read of my discovery of the blue poppy, brought back the seed of the flower...."

Access is restricted to the copy print.