Puiny’s -As7veErR 153 
nephew terms ‘‘not less varied than nature herself.” In that 
work the name Aséer is used for the Samian earth, as/erion fora star- 
spotted lizard (like Nicander’s usage), and asfericuin as a synonym 
for perdicium, 7. e., the plant wall-pellitory, Parietaria ; see p. 80. 
He makes two short references to Aster Atticus, very brief and 
scanty compared with Dioscorides ; adding however one new 
synonym and one new medical use, that for sciatica, really 
only a superstitious use, serving merely as magical amulet. 
Those who would reject part of the Dioscoridean description 
because too superstitious and because not found in Pliny, should 
also take exception to Pliny’s citation of virtue possessed by 
aster only when plucked by the left hand, and other supersti- 
tions. 
Pliny’s reference under the name Aster.—Pliny does not in either 
place call the plant by the Dioscoridean binomial name of Aster 
Atticus, but terms it simply Aster, and Inguinaria. His first refer- 
ence * is ina chapter + where he considers in a loosely alphabetical 
arrangement, properties of a number of unrelated plants, beginning 
with A, in the midst of which is his De... astere vel dbubonio, as 
follows : 
“Aster ab aliquibus bubonion appellatus, quoniam inguinum 
praesentaneum remedium est. Cauliculus foliis oblongis duobus 
aut tribus, in cacumine capitula stellae modo radiata. Bibitur et 
adversus serpentes. Sed inguinum medicinam, sinistra manu 
decerpi jubent, et juxta cinctus alligari. Prodest et coxendicis } 
dolori ad alligata.” In English (Riley’s rendering),§ 
critical — edition, Sillig, 1851-2. First translation (into Italian, 
Landino), Ven.'1476 ; first into English, by Philemon Holland, London, 1601 ; second, 
og which I quote, Riley’s continuation of Bostock’s translation, Lon. 1855-7, edn- 
Hermolaus Barbarus, Rome, 
Paris; that 
by Cri stoforo 
ohn. First commentaries separately published, those of 
1492-3, and Leonicenus, Ferrara, 1492 ; that of Salmasius was of 1629, at 
of Fée, Paris, 1833. Two partial MSS. of Pliny are in England, one of 18 books, 
l. 289, and one in the Norfolk collection, 2996 ; besides an epitome, 459, in Trinity 
College, Cambridge. 
= Bk. 27, c. § ;—p. 482 of the edn. Froben (Basle, 1555): : 
t De aparine, et arctio, et asplenio, et asclepiade, et astere vel bubonio, et ascyro 
Yel ascyroides, et aphace, et de alcibio, et alectoropho. 
} Lit., «*for pain in the region of the hips.” 
2 Pliny, edn. Bohn, 5: 229. Riley here notes Fée’s agr 
Sprengel, that Aster Amellus L. is here meant. Desfontaines had sug 
Pliny intended *‘ the /nula bubonium :” see p. 69. 
eement with Jussieu and 
at 
