174 Aster Hisrory; PALLADIUS 
most of all, and one example of the way in which Palladius may 
be considered to have modified Columella becomes very interesting 
to the student of Aster. Columella’s first list of wild plants be- 
loved by the bees, consisting of amellus, acanthus, asphodel and 
narcissus, passing then into garden plants and enumerating the 
lily, snowdrop, rose, violet, hyacinth and crocus, has already been 
cited, p. 134. Pontedera* claims that this particular list was imi- 
tated by Palladius, De re rustica, bk. 1, c. 37, in whose new form 
it is as follows : 
“ Asphodilum, citraginem, amaracum, hyacinthum, qui iris vel 
gladiolus dicitur similitudine foliorum, narcissum, crocum ceterasque 
herbas suavissimi odoris et floris.”” In English, 
‘ Asphodel, balm, marjoram, hyacinth which is called iris or 
gladiolus from the likeness of its leaves, narcissus, crocus, and 
other herbs of sweetest odor and flower.” 
Here Amellus disappears, as if unknown to Palladius after lapse 
_of 400 years ; and if any plant in the list replaces it, it is Citrago + 
or balm, a very different plant, mentioned by Palladius again, i, 37, 
2; and v, 8, 6. 
What is indicated by replacement of the Amellus of Columella 
by the Citrago, 7. e., balm, or melissophyllon, of Palladius ? Prob- 
ably the following : 
1. Columella, perhaps not very familiar with Amellus in nature, 
and basing his own references to it chiefly on Vergil, had not been 
able to give reality enough to his references to impress posterity. 
2. All true knowledge of the Aster Atticus of the Greeks had 
probably disappeared from Rome since Galen, and there was 1° 
surviving tradition to lead Palladius to connect the Amellus with it. 
eee 
Seas Pontedera, botanist of Padua, 1688-1757, author, 1718, of a ‘‘Compen” 
dium ’’ in which he reviews 272 plants lately detected by him in Italy; and, 172% of 
ino, in 1583, calls it Citronella ; and other Italians, Citraria ; in Macer Floridus it @p- 
pears as Barrocus and in the Apodixis Florae Germanicae, 1531, as White Barheng. 
