120 Aster History; CRATEVAS 
This is a very early instance of the custom since prevalent 
among botanists, of honoring the discoverer of a plant by conferring 
his name upon it, and is I think the first instance where the botanical 
writer conferring such a personal plant-name is himself definitely 
known. 
Cratevas’ lost work on plants called the Rhizotomica survives 
to us only by quotations ; the citation of present interest is intro- 
duced into Dioscorides’ chapter on Aster Atticus, and is as fol- 
lows : 
Kat Koareiug 0 prtorépog facopet: acy yhopa xoreioa psa 
S 
OSv77200 Zahatod, Toes? mpog hvaaodyxtove xat Bporyoxnhenorg: So- 
Gupwpery 0& guyadebee Oypta. 
‘‘ Caeterum Crateuas herbarius hanc refert, si viridis cum axungia 
verere tundatur, contra rabiosorum morsus sutturisque ramices 
prodesse, ac suffitu quoque serpentes fugare (Saracenus’ transla- 
tion*) 2, ¢., 2 
“Furthermore, Cratevas the rhizotomist states this : ‘the green 
plant of Aster Atticus bruised and mixed with old axle-grease, iS 
a remedy for the mad-dog’s bite and for throat tumors or goitre ; 
and if burned, its fumes put serpents to flight.’ ”’ 
This quotation from Cratevas was probably introduced into 
Dioscorides’ text by a later scholiast, according to Saracenus and 
other commentators, who have excluded it from the text as un- 
worthy of Dioscorides’ excellent judgment. That argument alone 
is not, however, a sufficient reason ; for Dioscorides’ attitude 
toward Cratevas seems to me to have been this; he held him in 
esteem as did Pliny, Galen and others who quoted from him; he 
speaks in his preface of Crataevas’ plants as delineated with very 
keen discrimination (dxo¢3eaté pwc) ; but this esteem was qualified by 
some limitations ; and the more credulous statements of Cratevas, 
Dioscorides would still cite occasionally, if they were needed to 
complete his plan of presenting a fair résumé of the chief points 
of current medical opinion ; Dioscorides freeing himself from re- 
sponsibility for them by making a general protest against their 
credibility, but then continuing to cite them by such phrases as 
it is said.” etc... For example, in Diosc., bk. 3, c. 130 (de 
Vien), Dioscorides quotes Cratevas as mentioning a current 
* Dioscorides, A; $38. 
