Puiny’s /NGUINARIA 155 
Riley translates this as follows : 
‘«« SECTION 9 
‘Some persons add pennyroyal to the number of these plants ; 
gathered fasting, they say, and attached to the hinder part of the 
body, it will be an effectual preservative against all pains in the 
groin, and will allay them in cases where they already exist. 
“CHAPTER 59, INGUINALIS OR ARGEMO 
“TInguinalis again (the ‘Groin-plant’; probably the same as 
the Bubonion of bk. 27, c. 19), or as some persons call it, ‘argemo,’ 
a plant commonly found growing in bushes and thickets, needs 
only to be held in the hand to be productive of beneficial effects 
upon the groin.” 
The name Inguinalis is given among the Dioscoridean syn- 
onyms as the Roman name for Aster Atticus. It seems to have 
been more generally used than Inguinaria, Pliny’s form for it; in 
late mediaeval Latin it sometimes appeared as Unguinalis, Unguini- 
alis, or Ynguinialis. 
Some, however, as Billerbeck, 143, without apparent reason, 
assume Inguinaria as distinct from Inguinalis, and identify it with 
FHerniaria hirsuta \.. 
Pliny’s Aster-synonym Argemon. 
The name argemon, which appears here as a Plinian synonym 
for Aster, occurs once again in Pliny, and, as before, not as a cur- 
rent name in received usage, but as a synonym, used on this 
second occasion for his Lappa canaria,* a plant with a resemblance 
to Aster in its medical reputation, being used as an application to 
ulcerating tumors. An atmosphere of magic and of ritual hangs 
about argemon. Its root was reputed to be medicinal to swine ; 
and no less a personage than the goddess Minerva was said to 
have discovered that quality in it. It bore an antipathy to iron. 
The person who would use it must not dig it up with an iron mat- 
tock + or any similar implement. He must, as he takes it oa i 
repeat the magic formula, “This is the plant Argemon, which 
p Beginning ‘* Nam quae canaria appellatur lappa,’’ etc. 
tT Effossa sine ferro, Pliny, 24; ¢- 19- 
