PLANT-NAMES DERIVED FROM ASTER 81 
Greece, where it is still called zepdexdx, or the partridge-plant, as 
in time of Pliny; and is also known by the name dveysozderre (fide 
Sibthorp), ‘‘ the key turned by the wind’’ ; but not any longer by 
its name in Dioscorides of $4fé7, “ the plant drawn out.’ 
Robertus Constantinus in his notes on Theophrastus pro- 
posed to amend dateptaxor by datepxoy ; but no one seems to have 
adopted the suggestion and I see no reason for it. See infra, 
p. 114. Brunfels (2: 18) makes Astericum the same with Im- 
peratoria of his day (and of Linnaeus), and not the same with 
Meu which it had been considered (Athamante Meum L.). 
ASTERION, doréprov, = little star, starlike-leaf, or Aster-like 
plant. In the first sense, supplied to Aster itself. 
In the second, it occurs as a synonym for hemp, Cannabis 
sativa L., D., bk. 3, c. 161, a scholiast there remarking that the 
reason for the occurrence of the name Asterion for Cannabis is 
from the division of its somewhat radiate leaves. 
In the second sense it also occurs as a synonym for /fera- 
cleum Sphondylium L., D., bk. 3, ¢. 90, the Sgovddseov of the 
Greeks, with radiately divided leaves. Matthaeus Sylvaticus inter- 
preted this Asterion as = Artemisia, fide Ducange (Glossarium ad 
scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis, Leyden, 1688). 
Asterion also occurs as an animal-name, denoting a certain 
kind of spider, or phalangium, with starlike spots, Nicander, Theri- 
aca, 745, where a species of Tetragnatha is meant, according to 
Walck 
Asterion is said to represent a white-spotted lizard, Pliny, 29, 4. 
Asterion also occurs in Myrepsus, 21, 2, in the phrase “ asterii 
in mari invenii,”” meaning probably the starfish, the Latin s¢e//a, 
the stella marina of Pena and Lobel. 
AsrTeRIPHON, a form of the Carthaginian Astertiphe, q. v. 
(Chamaemelum), as cited by Ruel, D., edn. 1549. 
ASTEROPE, dotepory, star-faced ; a name in Egypt of the plant 
Marrubium, D.; perhaps however merely a contraction of its Car- 
thaginian name Atierberzia, q. v., assimilated to Greek form. 
Astria, dozpra, cited in MS., Lexicon in Cod. Reg. Paris, as 
a synonym for Helxine, &é«7 of D., Ducange. 
AstRIoN, dotpeov, Byzantine Greek for “ little star,’ occurs as 
synonym for Plantago Coronopus L., D., bk. 2, c. 158 (interpola- 
