154 Aster Hisrory; PLINy 
“Tur ASTER OR BuBONION. THREE REMEDIES 
“ The Aster is called bubonium by some, from the circumstance 
of its being a sovereign remedy for diseases of the groin. It has 
a diminutive stem with oblong leaves, two or three in number, 
and at the summit it is surmounted by small radiated heads like 
stars. This plant is taken also in drink, as an antidote to the 
venom of serpents ; but if required for the cure of inguinal com- 
plaints, it is recommended that it should be gathered with the left 
hand and attached to the body near the girdle. Itis of great ser- 
vice also worn as an amulet for sciatica.” 
One feature in Pliny’s description looks like that of a man who 
had actually seen the plant; his remark “it has a diminutive stem 
with oblong leaves, two or three in number.”’ As the plant grew 
in northern Italy, where Pliny was born, it may have been fa- 
miliar to his childhood. He does not seem to know the name 
Amellus for it, however, which might be due to a failure of the 
name Amellus to extend in popular use beyond the river Mella, 
with which Vergil connected it; or Pliny may have forgotten the 
rural name, being now almost forty years removed from the regions 
of its growth about Verona, and having been accustomed to read its 
descriptions since in Greek authors who called it Aster, as Cratevas 
and Dioscorides, and probably many others lost to us. 
Pliny's previous reference, as /nguinaria.—The other allusion 
to Aster made by Pliny is by the name of Inguinaria, and among 
plants used for tumors and for hemorrhoids. For these purposes 
Pliny has just mentioned plantago, cinquefoil, cyclamen-root, blue 
anagallis, cotyledon and pennyroyal; then follows what he has 
to say of Inguinaria; then the use of panaces (Laser pitium Chironium 
L,), plantago, anda number of other plants, all used for tumors, 
including verbascum, hoarhound, etc. The remarks concerning 
pennyroyal and inguinaria are so similar that I quote them both :* 
“De pulegio et argemone. 
“ Alli adjiciunt et pulegium ; quod jejunus qui legerit, si post 
se alliget, inguinis dolores prohibit, aut sedat coeptos. 
“Inguinaria, (quam quidam argemonen vocant) passim in ve- 
sisal nascens, ut profit inguinibus, in manu tantum habendum 
* Pliny, bk. 26, c. 59; (and edn. Bohn, 5: 188) 
