ASTER TRACES IN MACER’S ANTHEMIS 209 
Atticus too?] But Leucanthemum is gathered with white leaves 
[t.¢., rays; Anthemis Chia L., Matricaria Chamomilla L., A. nobilis 
L.; all included in Dioscorides’ corresponding white-rayed An- 
themis, Szdthorp|; with yellow leaves, Chrysanthemum is found 
[including Anthemis tinctoria L.? and perhaps also certain Chrys- 
anthemum sp. of L.]. 
‘Strength to all these is ascribed, dry and zarm * in the first 
degree. Each provokes urine, when drank with wine as you please ; 
breaks [dissolvcs| stones in the bladder, and purges the menses, if 
the matrix be bathed in water in which the herb is boiled; or if 
the herb is more frequently taken in wine. Colic * it assuages * 
and inflation of the stomach by its drink is driven away. Scales 
[warts] it removes from the countenance; if you lay it on 
powdered alone or worked up with honey. For rheumatism it is 
of service, its decoction taken; and wonderfully it helps, if taken 
in drink for complaints of jaundice. Taken with wine it is able to 
expel the abortive birth. Nith this herb, boiled in otl,* you may 
drive off a chill,* if you nourish the fevered with it ; and the fever * 
also often you may expel. Turgid hypochondria is oft purged from 
the bowels [wnguine ; for inguine] by such draughts. 
“ Pestiferous bites of serpents produce no harm if Anthemis is 
taken, a drachma in weight, with wine. [Said by Cratevas of As- 
ter Atticus, Copied by Macer from some Greek writer; who was 
speaking of Aster Atticus by name of purple Anthemis 7] 
“ Pliny affirms + [where ?] that this plant will gradually purge 
all biliousness, if taken for 40 days, on each day twice, a drachma 
in weight, with twin cups of a wine thin and white, and accom- 
panied with a lotion. 
: Properties in italics are found in Pliny’s account of Anthemis; and also in that 
Scorides except those followed by the asterisk *. 
use * eoteaaan compares a somewhat similar prescription, Pliny, 20, 59, with 35 days’ 
: rs ee but its details are too different to have been Macer $ source. ays 
from the of the remainder seems as if Macer’s own transcript of experience } pee 
ee “at of Chamomile handed down among Magna Graecian people perhaps ; 2 
<eniiee - Pliny or Dioscorides. xanthema is classic Greek, and in —. 
tions of M m all Macer’s MSS. may be a Magna Graecian form for it. Later edi- 
acer correct the 7 to ¢ to cast the word in conventional form. 
