172 Aster History; APULEIUS 
His work De herbarum virtutibus * consists of 131 brief chap- 
ters, each devoted to the properties of a single plant, sometimes — 
with a few descriptive characteristics, and often with a long list 
of synonyms, + many of which may have been derived from 
Dioscorides, but some of which as well as some of the med- 
ical uses stated, must have come from some unknown and later 
source. Thechapter on Aster is the 61st, which I quote entire. 
“61t. Asterion. Nascitur inter petras ct loca aspera. Hac 
herba nocte tanquam stella in coelo lucet, et qui videt ignorans 
dicat phantasma se videre, et metu plenus irridetur, maxime a pas- 
toribus. Ad caducos. Herbae asterii baccaseis dab as mandu- 
candas Luna decrescente, cum erit in signo Virginis, et ipsam her- 
bam habeant in collo suspensam, remediabuntur.”’ 
i. ¢., “ Asterion grows among rocks and rough places. This 
herb shines by night just like a star in the sky and any one who 
sees it unaware of this fact may say that he sees a phantasm, and 
being full of fear he is laughed at, most of all by the shepherds. 
(Its medical use is) For fallings (7. ¢., epilepsy). For these you 
may prescribe the berries (7. ¢., pil/s) of the herb asterion to be 
chewed in the wane of the moon when it shall be in the sign Virgo; 
and should they wear the herb itself suspended about the neck, 
they will be healed.” § 
* First printed at Rome without date or printer’s name in or before 1473 45 is indi- 
cated by dedication to Cardinal F. de Gonzaga; before 1471, fide Pritzel. ake 
rough copies of the original figures, but is very rare. It was edited by Philip de Ligna- 
mine, who called Apuleius ‘‘a Platonist, now attempting to take up the work of the 
centaur Chiron who had learned his art from Achilles,”’ 
mong these are synonyms credited by Apuleius (a native of the province * 
Carthage himself) to Carthage, and which the MSS, of Dioscorides credit to Africa, % 
¢., to the "Agpor; showing that it is Carthage which the MSS. of Dioscorides intend. 
{ The 6o of references; but 67 of the A-S version, and of the annotated edition 
of Ackermann, 1788 ; also of the edn. Drouart, Paris, 1543, which I use ; which (add- 
ing French names) repeats the text of the editio princeps by De I .ignamine, but wih 
its figures. Meyer, 2: 320, wrongly spells Drouert; but he had never been able to 
see a copy of that edition. 
what it is, he supposes that he seeth an apparition and so afeard (as he is), he is ri i- 
culed by herdsmen and by such men as know the virtues of the wort. For the falling 
ee named Virgo ; that is, in the month which is called August ; and let hit 
ave the same wort hung on his swere (neck) ; he will be cured.’’ 
