176 AsTEeR History: PALLADIUS 
of the properties characteristic of Aster Atticus increased very 
much with Pliny, when compared with Dioscorides, including the 
following : : 
It cures ulcers—ulcera sanat. 
It cures the bite of a dog—canisque morsus. 
It cures swellings of glands in the throat—ulcera thoracis. 
It cures inflammations or dimness of the eyes—caligines ocu- 
lorum. 
It cures “ vulvarum strangulationes.”’ 
So Macer Floridus, who repeats most of the above. 
So Avicenna, who adds to the properties of Melissa, ‘‘ etiam 
visceribus conpetit [as cited by Matthioli, edn. 1560; 436]. 
So Simeon Seth, who enumerates properties normal apparently 
to Melissa and then adds, as if from Aster, ‘“ Bubones laedit” 
[as cited by Fuchs, edn. 1542; 500]. 
Others as Nicander, Varro, Vergil, Galen, Serapion, seem to 
have mentioned melissophyllon in a manner uncompromised by 
any probable importation from Aster Atticus. 
XX. PLinius VALERIANUS 
Plinius Valerianus, an author or redactor, perhaps of 600 
A. D., was much in vogue at the Renaissance. His “ five books 
of medicine” were first published in 1509 at Rome, as “ Medicinae 
Plinianae”’ ; again by Cratander at Basle, 1528, edited by Torinus ; 
and a fifth edition by 1529. They contain the first instances of 
many modifications of Latin plant names which later became com- 
mon, as Eviscum for Hibiscum, Jusquiamus * for Hyoscyamms ; 
and also contain many names apparently Celtic or Arabic or other- 
wise foreign to Latin. 
Plinius Valerianus has an interesting name for Aster's near 
relative, the Chamomile, Anthemis nobilis, calling it “ Proser” 
pina herba, quam alii Camomillam dicunt,’’ 1, 38; Aster had 
been linked and associated with Athena and Hera; Anthemis had 
now become linked with Proserpine. 
There were two other plants latterly dedicated to Proserpine ; 
: *So written by writers like Bartholomaeus Anglicus, etc., the name Laan 
_ In editions almost as late as 1600 
